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A Mflti^^rful (Eouutrij 




HOMKU J. DAVIS 



O. H. DAVIS 



PUBLISHED BY 



[BM©TIHIEE 



1019 COMMERCE BUILDING 
KANSAS CITY, MO. 



Hailraan Prinring Co.. Kansas Cily. Mo 



(^^ -H.^ro.^:^ _ 



E F SWIN NEY. Pre 
H T A B ERNATHY. Vi 
A C JOBES.ViCE Prel 
C G. HUTCHESON. Ca 
G P REICHEL. ASST 



THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK, 

OF KANSAS CITY.MO 
CAPITAL $ 500,000,00. 
SURPLUS $1,000,000,00. 
""pSoF^i^ $ E50 000.00 



November 28th, 1908. 



'^' 



To Whom Interested 



We beg to advise that Messrs. 
Davis Brothers, who are now handling land in Mexico, 
have been valued customers of this bank for a great 
many years. We have at all times, found them honor- 
able, upright gentlemen, whose statements could be 
relied upon. 

We do not believe these gentlemen would 
make any representations they could not see their way 
clear to carry to completion. 



Your sytr lily, 




JLiBR""^ »' CONGRESS 
TWO ccoies aecsived 

DEC 17 ^soa 

! ^ Oopyrlini Entry 
N 6SS CV XXc Mo, 



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President, Vice-President and Caljinet Officers of the Repulilic of Mexico. 



Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/plainfactsaboutmOOdavi 




Just ^lain jfaM 





T IS our purpose in this booklet to give 
you the plain facts about a wonderful 
country — Mexico. 

But the very fact that this is a wonderful 
country may cause our statements of fact to 
appear like fiction. 

Therefore, as our preface or introductory 
to what follows in this booklet, we want to 
say that we expect you to investigate. 

And, as we incur a considerable expense in 
putting our statements before you and thous- 
ands of others, and expecting, as we do, that 
each one who is interested will investigate, 
would it be good business for us to misrepre- 
sent ? Is this not a sufficient argument to con- 
vince the most skeptical that our statements 
and our proposition are at least worthy of 
investigation? 

What we undertake to tell you about par- 
ticularly is a portion of the Republic of Mex- 
ico lying south of the Gulf Coast of Mexico. 

There is in this portion of Mexico, in the 
states of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca, a large body 
of the richest laud in the world. 

And we claim that it is the most desirable 
place in the world today for a safe and profit- 
able investment in land. 

Our claim is based on the following facts 
about this land : 

Its wonderful depth and fertility of soil; 

Its abundance of rainfall ; 

Its splendid drainage and its excellent water 
supply from rumiing streams and from wells 
of shallow depth ; 

Its marvelous productiveness and the im- 
mense variety of its valuable products ; 

Its unexcelled location from the important 
standpoint of market facilities ; 

Its excellent health conditions : 

Its mild and even climate — tropical, but 
with no extreme heat and never a frost ; 

Its advantage in permitting the planting and 
harvesting of crops the }'ear round — and 

Its advantage in the cheapness of the cost 
of good native labor. 

Tiiis land will produce more corn than can 
be produced on any land in the United States 
— two splendid crops on the same land the 
same year, and with less cultivation than is 
reffuired in this country. 



This land will grow any fruit grown in Cal- 
ifornia or Florida, and many other highly val- 
uable products and fruits not grown in the 
United States. 

This land excels our Southern States for 
the production of cotton and rice. 

This land is equal, if not superior, to Cuba 
for sugar and tobacco. 

This land is wonderfully productive of 
coffee, cacao (chocolate), valuable vegetable 
fibres, bananas, pineapples, cocoanuts and 
other tropical products and fruits which find 
an ever increasing market in the United States 
(duty free) and in the markets of Europe. 

There is much valuable timber on this land, 
such as mahogany, black zvalniit and cedar. 

This land will grow forests of eucalyptus — ■ 
splendid timber — in four to seven years time, 
and the growth is progressive and continuous 
from sprouting stumps after the timber is 
cut. 

This land requires absolutely no irrigation 
for any crop i;rozcn. 

No Argument Needed. 

Now, wdien such land as this — rich, virgin 
soil — with all the advantages briefly indicated 
in the above-mentioned facts, which following 
pages will describe and which investigation will 
prove, when such land can be bought for only 
a few dollars per acre, can there be any pos- 
sible doubt of it as an absolutely safe and a 
tremendously profitable investment? 

No argument is needed. 

The prosperous American farmer, who is 
always a business man ; the successful business- 
man who is not a farmer, but who always 
realizes that agriculture is the basis of all real 
prosperity ; the professional man and the 
thrifty person in every occupation, who al- 
ways gives some attention to economic ques-- 
tions : every one of these, in fact everybody 
who will read this booklet, knows that "the 
safest and best inz'cstment on earth is the earth 
itself." 

You know this. 

You know that the price of land, like every- 
thing else of value, is regulated by the com- 
mercial law of supply and demand. 

You know that there can be no increase in 
the supply of land, and that there is a con- 



6 



Plain Facts Ahout Mexico. 



slant increase in the demand for good agri- 
cultural land because of a steadily increasmg 
population. People must be fed, they must 
have clothing and sheher ; and all these things 
come, directly or indirectly, from the soil. 

You know that only a few 3-ears ago there 
were millions upon millions of acres of good 
agricultural land in this country free to the 
homesteader. 

You know that this land is now all taken 
up and most of it is under cultivation. 

You know that this land which a few years 
ago was free to the homesteader is today worth 
from $15.00 to $100.00 per acre. 

You know that in Nebraska, in Kansas, in 
Oklahoma, in Texas, in all the West, South- 
west and Northwest, even in cold, bleak Can- 
ada, land values have doubled and redoubled 
within the past few vears. 



You know that the expansion of agriculture 
\\ithin the borders of the United States is 
about at an end, and entirely at an end for 
free land or reall)' good land at former low 
prices. 

You know that the ambitious, thrifty farmer 
and investor of years past has prospered and 
grown rich by expansion — by reaching out for 
nev,'- fields of virgin soil and building up new 
empires of rich production. 

You know that these methods will continue, 
even though the reach must be beyond the 
borders of the United States. 

What you may not know, and what we 
want 3'ou to know, is that thrifty, enterprising 
and expanding Ameriean and German, farmers 
are going to .^fe.vieo. 




You know that good farm land in the Mid- 
dle West is now so high priced that it affords 
only a moderate income on the investment. 

You know that, notwithstanding the devel- 
opment in recent years of practically every 
acre of agricultural land in the United States, 
farm products are steadily increasing in price. 

You know that following the "njoney panic" 
of 1907, when stocks and bonds, business in- 
vestments and commercial enterprises gener- 
ally were badly affected and depressed, farm 
products and good farm land still commanded 
high prices and zvere in good demand. 

You know that the "Great West" of our 
country suffered comparatively little by that 
panic, because we had the farm products and 
people had to be fed. 



A View of the City of Teliauntepec. 

A Timely Movement. 

This movement of farmers and investors to 



^lexico is most timely. 

The conditions here and the conditions 
there warrant it. 

"In Mexico there are good things yet to be ob- 
tained. In ' more developed countries, the good 
things have "already b(?en taken up by people who 
intend to keep them." 

This applies especially to agriculture and 
good agricultural land. 

In mining, in railroad building and in many 
other branches of industrial and commercial 
activity, j\Iexico has had a marvelous develop- 
ment during the past thirty years. 

But agriculture has not kept pace with other 
advancement. 



A \\'oxDERFUL Country. 



Alcxictj is today a large importer of food- 
stuffs and farm products ; and this fact, in 
view of her splendid areas of the richest land 
in the world, is remarkable. 

It has been due to the peculiar conditions 
of land ownership in Mexico, which will be 
ex])lained later under the headino'. "Land 
Titles." 

W'e desire now to speak oi the governmental 
Conditions of Mexico, of the great changes 
that have been wrought there in the past thirty 
years, of the present stable government af- 
fording full protection to person and property, 
of Mexico's sound financial condition, of the 
many thousands of Americans now living and 
prospering in Mexico, and of the vast amount 
of American capital already invested there. 



But all this was changed when General I'or- 
firio Diaz was elected president of the new 
Republic in 1876. He had been a successful 
leader of the Revolutionists, and his remark- 
able capacity for lighting has been exceeded 
only by his indomitable will for peace, law 
ancl order, and his wise constructive states- 
manship. 

When President Diaz was first elected the 
constitution of the Republic did not permit 
of more than one term. But during the ad- 
ministration following the first term of Diaz 
the constitution was amended so as to allow 
of this re-election, which occurred in 1884 and 
each four years thereafter until 1904, when 
his re-election wa^ for a term of six years, 
expiring I'UO. .\l that time he will be 80 




TcliauiiKinc Xatiunal Railua\ .Siaii. 



.1 Teh.nuiKp. 



The Republic of Mexico. 

In this country and abroad, Mexico is per- 
haps best known for her marvelous mineral 
wealth and because of the wonderful achieve- 
ments of her chief executive. President Diaz. 

Xo country in the world has made greater 
moral and material progress during the past 
thirty years than has the Republic of Mexico. 

It is true that prior to thirty years ago the 
country was in a most deplorable condition 
of disorder. 

Mexico has a civilization older than our 
own. but centuries of Spanish rule and the 
greed of foreign invasion gave no opportunity 
for any real civilization or progress 

These centuries of oppression, of turmoil 
and strife, had naturally led to lawlessness, 
brigandage and a warlike spirit among the 
natives of Mexico. 



years old. He is still vigorous in mind and 
body, and may again be re-elected at the end 
of his present term. But whether he is or 
not, his great work has been accomplished and 
will be permanent. In no portion of the 
world is life or property more safe than it 
is in the Republic of Mexico. Abuses have 
been so far corrected, corruption so exposed 
and punished, that now throughout the coun- 
try the personal rights of citizens and foreign- 
ers are as well protected as they are in the 
United States. 

Since the first election of President Diaz in 
1876 a generation has matured in Mexico that 
knows nothing of war, and that has a big 
stake in peace and order. Likewise are the 
40,000 Americans now residing there a pow- 
erful influence for peace and good govern- 
ment. 



Plaix Facts About Mexico. 



The Government of Mexico. 

The constitution of the Repubhc of ]\Iexico 
is very similar to that of the United States. 

The Repubhc is composed of twenty-seven 
states, three territories and a Federal Dis- 
trict. 

The constitutions of the several states also 
closely resemble those of the United States. 

The courts are organized on the American 
plan, although the law is more the Roman 
than the English common law. 

Justice is administered impartially. 

There is perfect religious liberty, tree speech 
and a free press. 



American methods are the standard for the 
educational work of the Mexican government. 
A few years ago a special commissioner was 
sent to New York to gather information and 
especially all necessary data to develop man- 
ual training in Mexico. 

The following quotation from the writings 
of a competent authority, Mr. Lummis, in a 
series of articles contributed to Harper's Mag- 
azine as long ago as 1897, will indicate the 
progress of educational work in Mexico. Mr. 
Lummis wrote at that time as follows : 

"In every public school of Mexico above tlie pri- 
mary grade, in every private school, training school 
and college, English is a compulsory study — in an- 
other generation," said Mr. Lummis, "Mexico is 




Bridge and boat at Santa Lucretia. 



Education. 



The government has established free schools 
in Mexico, and primary education is now com- 
pulsory. 

It is true that ignorance and many absurd, 
but harmless, superstitions, still prevail among 
the masses of native inhabitants. 

It is not to be supposed that any high edu- 
cational standard could have been raised in 
the few years since the opportunity has been 
ofifered. 

The wants of the natives are vgry simple, 
they live close to nature, they are industrious 
in their primitive way, they are not atnbitious 
— they will work for a mere pittance — they 
are peaceful, faithful, docile and extremely 
courteous and respectful to foreigners. 

A remarkable feature of the educational 
work of the Mexican government is the fact 
that English is a compulsory study. 



going to be equipped for business and pleasure in 
two languages." 

Including classes for instruction in the arts and 
trades, there are in the Republic 16,326 government 
schools. They have an average attendance of 828,- 
OOO. Primary education is compulsory. There are 
also many private schools and colleges. 

In the City of M.exico the Federal government 
maintains the following institutions: Academy of 
Fine Arts, School of Civil Engineering, School of 
Medicine, Law School, Academy of Commerce, 
Academy of Arts and Trades, Conservatory of 
Music. Military College, School of Mines, two Nor- 
mal Schools for teachers of both sexes, also schools 
for the deaf, for the dumb, and for the blind. In 
the various staites there are many similar institutions 
supported by the state governments. Mexico an- 
nually expends between four million and five million 
dollars for the education of her people. 

There are seventv-tw'o public libraries in the coun- 
try. The National Library at the capital contains 
265,000 volumes. At the present time Mexico issues 
more than 350 periodical publications, including the 
daily and weekly newspapers, also magazines, literary 
reviews and organs of its variou.s industries and in- 
terests." 



A Wonderful Couxtry. 



Taxes. 

In general, land taxes throughout ^Mexico 
are verj^ low, and may be considered merely 
nominal, ranging as low as S2.00 to $3.00 per 
year on 1,000 acres. 

The assessment is generally made according 
to the maximum recorded transfer value of the 
land. 

The principal revenues of the country are 
collected at the custom houses and from rev- 
enue stamps. 

It has been urged by some authorities that 
the extremely low land taxes have contributed 



"That the financial future of Mexico is 
very bright there can be no doubt. Mexico is 
now on a gold basis, with steady exchange 
rates, and the business man, capitalist and in- 
vestor knows what he can depend on in mak- 
ing his calculations. 

"In no country are there better or more 
carefully and precisely adjusted banks than 
in ]vIexico. This is especially exact with the 
banks of issue in the Citj' of Mexico and in 
the principal cities of the various states of the 
Union, which are directly under the control 
and inspection of the Federal Government, 
and which comply strictly with the provisions 
and requirements of the national banking law 




Building a Native's House. 



to the lack of agricultural development in 
Mexico in proportion to other progress, inas- 
much as the low taxes have permitted the 
Spanish and I\Ie.xican owners of immense 
tracts of this land to hold same with a feeling 
of indilTerence as to its cultivation. 

Mexico's Solid Financial Condition. 

Of all the splendid achievements of the 
administration of President Diaz in recent 
years, none is more remarkable than the ex- 
cellent fiscal policy of the government. 

It is generally recognized by the world's 
greatest financiers, and the work of Senor 
Limantour, the present Secretary of the Mex- 
ican Treasury, is especially commended. 

We quote from the writings of a leading 
authoritv as follows: 



and their respective charters. Xo Mexican 
bank, operating under a Alexican charter, has 
failed since the first charters were granted in 
1880." 

Americans in Mexico. 

As before stated, there are now more than 
40,000 Americans residing in Mexico. 

And at the present time more than S700,- 
000.000.00 of American capital i.s invested in 
the Republic. 

The government of Diaz and the younger 
generation of splendid statesmen associated 
with him as A'ice-President of the Republic, 
as members of the Cabinet, as foreign min- 
isters and as governors of the various states 
of Alexico. encourages and protects the.se 
American and other foreign investments. 



10 



Plain Facts About Mexico. 



Not only has American capital been most 
conspicuous in the development of Mexico 
from a material standpoint, but American 
ideas, Ainerican energy and American skill 
have been leading factors. This has applied 
to the building of railroads and the construc- 
tion of harbors, to mining, to agriculture, to 
the building of many electric light and power 
plants, gas plants, waterworks plants, tele- 
phone systems, street car systems. In all these 
enterprises, and many others, American people 
and American money are the prevailing en- 
ergy. It is no exaggeration to say that Mexico 
is already very much Americanized — Anglo- 
Saxonized, if you please, and there is a con- 
stantly increasing tendency in that direction. 

Before leaving this subject of "Americans 
in Mexico" we desire to quote from a speech 
of our Ambassador to Mexico, upon the oc- 
casion of the official reception of Secretary 
Root in the City of Mexico in the fall of 
1907 when our Secretary of State made a tour 
of the Southern countries. A part of our 
Ambassador's address was as follows : 

"Industrially, the advance of Mexico during the 
time of Diaz, and especially during the past ten 



years, has been the marvel of the world. Thirty 
years ago there was little known of the railway in 
Mexico, the line from Vera Cruz to the City of 
Mexico, comprising 263 miles, being all there was in 
the country at that time. Today, Mexico is re- 
markably well covered with this great civilizer ; and 
the end is not yet, because railway projects and con- 
struction are to be found in every direction. 

"Agriculturally speaking, the changes have been 
as pronounced as the changes in railway conditions ; 
and the mining industry of Mexico has reached a 
point where it practically occupies the attention of 
the world. 

"Thirty years ago there were practically no Amer- 
icans in Mexico, and the few that were here, with 
now and then an exception, were here because they 
could not stay at home ; and there was no American 
capital invested in the Republic. Today what a dif- 
ferent condition we find: There are now, in the Re- 
public of Mexico, something like 40,000 Americans, 
and the majority of them are honest and industrious 
people who would be a credit to any country. Their 
sphere of action covers practically every known oc- 
cupation ; and the amount of American money in- 
vested in Mexico is thought to be something like 
$700,000,000. 

"That these changes have been brought about 
by the great force, ability as a constructor and the 
tact of President Diaz, no one can question. He has 
made it possible for all of us to live here in con- 
tentment and under prosperous conditions." 



Present Opportunity in Mexico. 



'[Tr' HE development of Mexico and the 
Sf^ profitable investment of American cap- 
ital there is far beyond the experi- 
mental stage. 

Yet it is a fact that its greatest advance- 
ment has occurred only in the past ten years. 

Much remains to be done, and therefore op- 
portunity is still young. 

And nowhere is this opportunity so bright, 
nowhere, so promising, nowhere so absolutely 
safe as in an investment in Mexico Gulf Coast 
Land. 

In this comiection we want to quote from 
a book on Mexico published by the Interna- 
tional Bureau of American Republics and 
printed in the United States government print- 
ing office in Washington. D. C. In reviewing 
the agricultural possibilities of Mexico, this 
book says in part as follows : 

"Frederick A. Ober, in one of his works, draws 
attention to the fact that the shape of Mexico on 
the map is that of a cornucopia, and calls the Aztec 
land "a horn of plenty." Nature has certainly 
showered her gifts upon the Republic with lavish 
hand. Her niines are practically inexhaustible, her 
forests rich in every variety of precious woods, her 
soil blessed with wonderful fecundity. 

"Yet with all these natural conditions in their 
favor the Mexicans for more than tw^o centuries 
delved into the bowels of the earth in search of 
silver and gold, and left the fields to lie fallow and 
the forests untouched, save where their products 
were needed purely for domestic purposes. 

"It has been stated that had the money which has 
been spent in mining in tlie couutvv been invested 



in agriculture, Mexico would have been at least 
four times as rich as it is today. It has to go to 
the United States for many of the necessities of life. 
The vegetable products of the co.untry are varied in 
the extreme, owing to the diversified climate. Its 
productiveness is perhaps unsurpassed by any other 
country on the globe. The soil produces all the 
cereals and all the fruits of the United States and 
Euiope, besides those properly incident to the 
Tropics." 

Land Titles. 

The peculiar conditions of land ownership 
in Mexico have undoubtedly been largely re- 
sponsible for the tardiness of agricultural de- 
velopment. 

Until very recent years all the desirable ag- 
ricultural lands of the Republic have been held 
in large tracts by a comparatively small num- 
ber of owners. The system of land owner- 
ship which prevailed there dates back to the 
subdivisions of the lands of New Spain (Mex- 
ico) by the Spanish crown among soldiers and 
adventurers who aided in the conquest. 

Lands were for man}' years practicall)' ex- 
empt from taxation. 

The great haciendas of the country have 
remained for many generations in possession 
of the descendants of the original owners. 

These original land grants from the King 
of Spain have been confirmed by the Federal 
government, the present Republic of Mexico. 

The basis of land titles in Mexico is there- 
fore perfectly sound. In fact, a good title in, 
Me.rico is as good as the best in the world. 



A W'u.NUERFUL Country. 



11 



Complications frequently arise, however, be- 
cause of the numerous and distantly located 
heirs to these large, undivided estates — the 
difficulty often being more in the matter of 
getting the consent of all the heirs to sell or 
subdivide than in obtaining perfect title in 
the event of such sale or subdivision. Many 
advantageous purchases have been frustrated 
by this difficulty. Our connections are such 
as to relieve our customers of all doubts and 
perplexities in the matter of titles or concern- 
ing the actual acquirement of lands bought 
through us. 

Mexico Needs Agricultural Development. 

As we have said before, agriculture has not 
kept pace with other prorgess in Mexico. 

In like manner as American capital, Amer- 
ican brains and American energy and enter- 
prise have profited by industrial and commer- 



Not All Good. 

You no doubt know that, in proportion to 
the total area, there is only a small part of 
Me.xico that is really desirable for agriculture. 

In fact many people condemn the whole 
country from this standpoint, because they 
have seen only the Xorthern part of it across 
the Texas border, or they have formed their 
opinions from what they could see along the 
railroads enroute to the City of Mexico. 

It is true that the Xorthern and Western 
portions of the Republic are principally dry, 
arid and mountainous. 

Some of the lands in these undesirable por- 
tions have rich soil, and will be productive 
some day, perhajis, with irrigation ; but that 
is expensive and in many ways objectionable 
in comparison with cultivation of land where 
there is always an abundance of rainfall — 
Xature's own method of sniijilying nKiisture. 




Native's Home in 

cial pursuits in Me.xico — just so is the oppor- 
tunity now presented for American farmers, 
stock raisers and fruit growers to show the 
way and reap the benefits of developing the 
splendid agricultural resources of the Gulf 
Coast Country of Mexico. 

The conditions are favorable ; the time is 
ripe for this enterprise. 

Mexico today is a heavy importer of farm 
l)roducts, beef, pork and foodstuffs generally. 
The home market for produce is better than 
it is in the United States. Very extensive and 
increasing mining operations, continued rail- 
road building and other vast industrial and 
commercial enterprises in Alexico, as else- 
where, contribute to the importance and to 
the advantage of agriculture, and this means 
a rapid increase in the price and value of 
everv acre of jrood farm land. 



Tropical Me.xico. 

Climatic conditions must also be carefully 
considered. In no other country in the world, 
perhaps, are there such variations in climate 
and rainfall as in ]\Ie.xico. The great length 
of the country from Xorth to South, its nar- 
row width from East to West between the 
two oceans, and the greatly varying altitudes 
or general topography of the country account 
for these remarkable differences. 

Then there is a considerable portion of 
Mexico still remote from traffic ways. 

Without doubt, it behooves the investor to 
investigate before buying land. We expect 
and invite investigation of our proposition. 

We, ourselves, have investigated. We have 
been on the ground. 

We have spent months in ^Mexico inspect- 
ing lands and making a study of all pertinent 



12 



Plain Facts About ]\Iexico. 



conditions in widely different portions of the 
Republic. 

As a result zve arc iioiu offering the best 
land in a locatioji ivhich c.vcels in climate, 
health conditions, general crop conditions, and 
in its splendid market facilities. 

Not a Speculation. 

There is no speculation, no risk, no unknown 
factors about this Mexico Gulf Coast Land. 
Its many advantages are real ; its disadvan- 
tages exist only in the minds of those who 
have not seen it and who have not investi- 
gated its true conditions. 

This Gulf Coast Country of Mexico pos- 



the Gulf or Atlantic Coast, the summer heat 
is not so great as some days in Texas, Okla- 
homa, Kansas or Nebraska ; and the nights 
are always cool and pleasant. 

There is absolutely nothing that can prevent 
this Mexico Gulf Coast Country from becom- 
ing one of the most delightful and profitable 
garden spots of the zvorld. 

Location and Market Facilities. 

To many people "jNIexico" sounds far away. 

As a matter of fact, even Southern Mexico 
is not so far from Kansas City, St. Louis, 
Chicago or any points east of Kansas City as 
is Los Angeles, California. 




A typical scene in Tropical Mexico. 



sesses every advantage of the best farm lands 
of the United States, with separate and dis- 
tinct advantages peculiar to Mexico. 

With low priced land and cheap native 
labor, it offers every inducement to the settler. 

Li our portion of the Gulf Coast Country 
blighting frosts and drouths are unknown. 

In this country the winters can only be 
compared with the month of May in the North. 
You can work out in the open 365 days in 
the year. There is no closed season ; you 
can raise two or three crops a year. The 
sheltering and feeding of live stock is unnec- 
essary. You can raise a variety' of valuable 
products not equalled anywhere else on this 
continent. Transportation facilities are al- 
ready established and are unexcelled. 

The climate is tropical, but with no exces- 
sive heat in summer. Tempered by the de- 
lightful breezes which constantly blow from 



From St. Louis to Los Angeles the distance 
is 2,090 miles. 

From St. Louis to the City of [Mexico only 
LS79 miles by rail, and much less by water. 

From New York to Los Angeles the rail- 
road distance is 3,147 miles, and by water the 
distance is so great as to be utterly imprac- 
ticable even when the Panama canal is com- 
pleted. 

From New York City to the City of Mex- 
ico by rail tlie distance is 2,939 miles, and by 
cheap water transportation the distance be- 
tween New York and Vera Cruz or the Port 
of Mexico is only 1,980 miles. 

From New Orleans to either of these 
Southern Mexico ports the distance by water 
is only 788 miles; from Galveston only 611 
miles. 

It will therefore be seen that the Gulf Coast 
Cduntrv of Mexico has a slight advantage 



A Wonderful Country. 



13 



over California to all important inland cities 
of the United States in the matter of trans- 
portation, and a decided advantage to New 
York and all our eastern coast cities by cheap 
vs-ater transportation. 

Furthermore, all the splendid markets of 
Europe are available from this Mexico Gulf 
Coast Country by direct water routes, also 
all foreign markets reached from the Pacific 
Coast are equally available. 

Another comparison with California is 
quoted from a leading authority as follows : 

"In California, citrus fruits are raised by expen- 
sive irrigation systems, with more or less danger of 
frosts. In the Me.xican Tropics there is ample rain- 
fall for the growth of fruits, and all classes of 
tropical vegetation, without irrigation. Frosts are 
unknown, while fruits mature two months earlier 
than in California under natural conditions; the 
color, size and flavor are superior to that grown by 
irrigation." 

From the important standpoint of market 
facilities, you may look the entire world over 
and you cannot find a location superior to 
that of our lands in the Isthmus of Tehaunte- 
pec. in the states of \'era Cruz and Oaxaca, 
in the Republic of Mexico. 

Please refer to the map in this booklet. 

You will note that there is a line of railroad 
(the Tehauntepec National line) running from 
the Port of Me.xico on the Gulf or Atlantic 
coast to the Port of .Salina Cruz on the Pa- 
cific coast. 

This Tehauntepec Xational Railroad is only 
about 190 miles in length. }et it is a trans- 
continental line — it connects the two oceans 
— and already has an immense trafific. 

.\t the Port of Mexico millions of dollars 
are being spent in making it one of the best 
harbors in the world, and at both the Atlantic 
and Pacific coast terminals of this Tehaunte- 
pec National Railroail the latest improved 



methods of loading from freight cars to ocean- 
going vessels, and vice Z'crsa, are being in- 
stalled. 

Reference to the map will also show the 
splendid railroad facilities to the City of Mex- 
ico and thence to all the best portions of the 
Republic, to the mining districts, and the sev- 
eral connections with the railroads of the 
United States. 

jl'ithoitt doubt, our location is perfect both 
for the excellent home markets of Mexico 
and for the markets of the zcorld. 

Climate. 

^Marvels abound in the Gulf Coast Country 
of Mexico, and of all these the greatest, per- 
haps, is the climate. Located about 10" far- 
ther South than our southern coast, and only 
about 18° north of the equator, the natural 
supposition would be that this Mexico Gulf 
Coast Country must be very hot. But it is 
not so. As a matter of fact, there is no more 
invigorating and healthful climate to be found 
on the American continent than in many por- 
tions of this Gulf Coast Country. The rea- 
son is found in the delightful breeze blowing 
almost constantly from the Gulf, and to the 
mountain ranges lying to the South. 

The nights, especially, in this country are 
cool and pleasant, and the most remarkable 
thing about the climate is the slight variation 
in temperatures during an entire year. It is 
never extremely hot and it is never cold. The 
thermometer ranges between 53° and 95° 
above zero. The average high temperature 
is about 85°. The average low temperature is 
about 65°. The variation in temperature dur- 
ing the year seldom exceeds 35°, and the offi- 
cial weather reports show 44° to be the ex- 
treme variation in any one year. 




Preparing Cocoanuts for Market. 



14 Plain Facts Adout Mexico. 

The following government reports of temperatures are quoted from Fitzgerrell's Official Guide. 



STATIOXS— YEAKS. 



Near 
Tlerra 
Blanea. 
Veracruz. 



Ver ] Lowest Temperature 

L Difference in Teniperaturt 



Temperature at a. m 

Temperature at noon 

Temperature at Ij p. ni 

Higrliest Temperature 

Lowest Temperature 

Difference in Temperature. 















































p 






5 


.2 


a 







'^ 


fe 


" 




S 


70.1 


7' 


74.2 


76.2 


81 


ID 


77.5 


80.2 


84.4 


89 


05.2 


66.5 


6S.2 


68 


73 


SO 


91 


94 


98 


94 


4S 


5S 


48 


58 


62 


32 




46 


40 


32 


7-^ 


70.3 


72.6 


78 


75 


83 


78 


83 


83 


86 


60 


58 


62 


63 


64 


20 


20 


23 


22 




63.2 


64.4 


70 


73.2 


75.5 


74 


7S.8 


80.7 


Sfi.5 


90.3 


7?.5 


75.4 


75.4 


78.8 


85.3 


SO 


89 


93 


95 


98 


.=)7 


57 


63 


(i3 


68 


29 


32 


30 


32 


30 



81.7 
87.9 
75.4 























'^ 


< 


80 6 


80.4 


S6.5 


83.5 


74,8 


75.3 


98 


91 


T>. 


72 


26 


19 


78 


79.5 


.SSI 


91 


69 


60 


20 


30 


78 3 


75 


88 


90 


80 


82.6 


96 


93 




73 


24 


22 









■^ 


a 






a 


g 




> 










- 


•z. 


Q 


75.3 


7'' 5 


68.3 


81,4 


79.8 


75.6 


69,7 


65.2 


61.9 


86 


86 


82 


64 


59 


50 


22 


29 


32 


78.9 


76.5 


72.5 


89 


86 


82 


69 


67 


60 


20 


19 


22 


713 


68.3 


65.7 


8'-!.4 


80.6 


75 


72 2 


73.5 


70.8 


91 


86 


81 


63 


60 


61 


28 


26 


20 



In addition, we call attention to the following report of Air. J. C. Dennis, manager of the Joliet 
Plantation, this report covering- the year 1907 : 



TEMPERATURE. 





HiL'hest 

tor 
Montli. 


Lowest 

for 
Month. 


Average 

tor 
Jlontli. 


Greatest 

Range for 

Month. 


Greatest 

Range for 

Day. 


Lowest 

Range for 

Day. 


Day 

of 

Month. 




.80 • 
81 
88 
95 
101 
96 
92 
89 
SI 
8I> 
S3 
SO 


60 
57 
63 
02 
6S 
72 
68 
70 
09 
66 
63 
37 


71. 
71.1 
76.1 
81.3 

81.8 

S3.3 

78.9 

78. 

74.9 

75.5 

74. 

69.8 


20 
24 

33 
33 

24 
24 
19 
13 
20 
IS 
23 


14 
15 
17 
25 

24 
19 
14 
14 
12 
12 
13 
17 


1 

9 
10 
10 
3 
6 
6 
6 
3 
3 


5th 


Fchruarv 


3cl 


Jlarch 

April 


31st 
2d 


JIa,y 


18th 
18th 


.Inl.y 


4th 
31st 


September 


28th 
14th 




15th & 16th 




2(1 







Highest average for tlie year ^"-'.l 

Lo\vest average for year 64.73 

General average for year 70.3 

Average Daily Variation for year 11 

It will be noted that a more even temperature could hardly be found anywhere, the greatest annual 
variation only being 4 degrees Fahrenheit, and 100 degrees passed but once, May 15th, in the height of 
the dry season. The daily variation runs from 1 to 24 degrees, with a yearly average of 11 degrees 
during the 24 hours. 

During the dry season, there is a very heavy nightly dew, amounting to a shower, keeping all crops 
in splendid growing condition. 

Health Conditions. 



We quote from a leading authority as follows: 



"One of the most erroneous opinions that has 
gained currency in northern countries is that health 
is more precarious and disease more virulent in 
southern latitudes than in the North. Many causes 
have contributed to establish this belief. Each re- 
gion has its own peculiar ailments. We become ac- 
customed to sickness that we see .around us every 
dav, while an unknOAvn disease with an unfamiliar 



name causes dread not felt for what we are familiar 
with. 

"A warm climate, while an absolute preventive of 
one form of disease, induces the habits of living (es- 
pecially among the lower classes) favorable to an- 
other. Foreigners in Mexico who conform to the 
conditions of the country are as healthy as they 
would be at home." 



A WoNDERFi'L Country. 



15 



The climate of the Alexico Gulf Coast 
Country, where our lands are located, is ex- 
empt from the sudden and violent changes 
that cause many serious ailments in the 
North. Pneumonia, typhoid fever, diphtheria, 
scarlet fever and other diseases common to 
the colder climates are practically unknown. 

Our lands are generally rolling, thus pro- 
viding excellent natural drainage, which is 
needed because of the abundance of rainfall. 

In brief, it may be truthfully said that all 
conditions, including the mild and even clim- 
ate, harmonize to promote good health and 
comfort to both man and beast. 

On this important subject of health condi- 
tions, we quote the following: 



An American pliysician who recently investi- 
gated general conditions in the Tropics of Mexi- 
co, makes the following statement : "Of the 
many great surprises Tropical Mexico offers the 
investigator, whose previous information has 
been derived from newspaper impressions and 
hearsay, the greatest is the ideal health condi- 
tions existing in the Tropics, where drainage is 
good and sanitation normal. The superabund- 
ance of oxygen derived from the exhalation of 
tropical plant growth, makes one feel young again 
and causes such exhilaration of good feeling that 
even thought of disease is banished from one's 
mind." 

And no more reliable evidence could be of- 
fered on this subject of health conditions than 
the following report, pertaining as it does to 
a class of people subject to every exposure 
and working day and night shifts : 



Report of the Sanitary and Health Department of the Vera Cruz and Pacific 
Railway, Heart of the Tropics Route. 



Territory covered: For the year ending Dec. 31, 1907. 

Cordoba to Santa Lucrecia 326 kilometers 

Vera Cruz to Tierra Blanca ^ 100 kilometers 



Hospital Report. 



Average nuniljcr of employes working daily - 7q4 

Xumbcr of patients treated in hospital during the year 100 

Number of deaths during the year from following causes: 

Run over by train 3 

Knife wound caused by stabbing 1 

Pistol shot wound 1 

.Alcoholic congestion j 

."Kntipyrine poisoning by self -treatment 1 

Chronic dysentery ] 

Bilious remittent fever 1 

Cold abscess ] 

Tuberculosis I 

Pulmonary hemorrhage \ ]2 

Total number of deaths from natural causes 5 

Total number of deaths from accidental causes 7 ]2 

Percentage of deaths per annum from natural causes 7-lOths of 1 per cent 

Number of deaths per 1.000 from natural causes during year 7 

The report gives 704 as the average number of daily employes, but this does not include a large 
number of men employed on contract work, wlio, wlien sick, go to the railroad hospital and come under 
the care of the company surgeon. 

NOTE the unequaled health conditions in the "Heart of the Tropics," making it one of the most 
desirable places on the North .\meri'-.an Continent to live. 



16 



Plain Facts About Mexico. 



Rainfall and Water Supply. 

There is no question about the water supply, without irrigation, in our section of the Gulf 

Coast Country of Mexico. There is an abundance of rainfall as is shown by 

the following- figures compiled from Official Government reports 

of localities near our lands : 



STATIONS— YE.VRS. 



Joliet Plantation. 
Tierra Blanca. Veracruz. 

Montlil.v rainfall — inches 

Number of days of rainfall 



Santa liucreeia, V^ 

Monthly rainfall — inches — 
Nnnil:ter of ilays of rainfall- 



3.25 7.00; 6.50( 4.25 

0.90i 0.13' 0.95' 3.2i 

5i 31 6j ! 

1.82! 0.2o! 2.50 3.94 



4.98 
12 

2.37 













s 


.0 




SI 

a 


.a 

a 


tjo 


-2 




g 















■4 


rr. 





K: 


Q 


14.00 


10.00 


17.00 


9.50 


2.10 


21.95 


S.28 


8.97 


4.08 


0.71 


23 


16 


S 






30.00 


30.30 


5.94 


4.44 


1.90 




23 


19 




1 



Report of Mr. J. C. Dennis, Manager of the Joliet Plantation Company. 

And equally interesting and reliable is the following report of Mr. J. C. Dennis, Man- 
ager of the Joliet Plantation Co. This report is for the year 1907, and is especially inter- 
esting because it shows that notwithstanding the heavy rainfall there were 225 days in the 
year when the sun shone. The report is as follows : 





WEATHER. 




BAINFALL. 




Clear 
No. Days. 


Cloudy 
No. Days. 


Part Cloudy 
No. Days. 


Inches Joliet Inches Tierra 
Plant. Blanca. 




24 
16 
30 
17 
17 

7 
12 
11 

6 
13 
10 
11 

' 174 


12 
1 
13 
14 
23 
10 
00 
21 
16 
15 
■ 8 

140 


00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
OO 

9 
20 

3 

5 
12 

' 51 


1.66 


1.90 




.73 
.00 
.28 
.65 
11.52 


.50 


Marcli -- - - 


1.00 








2.28 




10.95 


July 


15.13 23.60 
21.17 , 22.S6 




14.79 


14.62 




8.46 
1.88 
1.32 

77.59 


9.67 




2.85 




1.48 




92.20 









Never failing wells of pure and sparkling water can be had on our lands at depths 
ranging from 20 to 40 feet. 

The springs and running streams provide ample stock water on much of the land, 
and where wells must be depended upon for this purpose the supply will be ample and 
reliable. 



A Wonderful Couxtrv. 



17 



In this connection we quote from a letter written by .Mr. Geo. S. Gould, Manager 
of the San Gabriel Plantation in Vera Cruz, as follows: 

"Aly experience has been that in this neighborhood, water can be had in a driven well 
at a depth of from 15 to 30 feet. On the Esmerelda Plantation, a few miles below here, 
I put down five wells to the depth of 26 feet and found a splendid flow of good water, 
which we used to drink as well as for milling purposes. In this locality we have springs 
of good fresh water." 

And the following letter from Mr. Dennis of the Tierra Blanca and Joliet Plantations: 
"As to the question of water supply for household purposes, we not only have an 
abundance of good water for that purpose, but plenty and never less, at our dryest times. 
Our hacienda is located on quite an elevation. We have three wells, two of them about 
80 feet and one 30 feet deep, that supply a'l and more than is necessary for drinking and 
house purposes. A hydraulic ram furnishes water a distance of 1,100 feet, 100 feet high, 
for all needs at barn and for other purposes, water coming from springs." 




Plantation Home 



Mexico. 



Soil. 

The wonderful fertility of the soil of Trop- 
ical Mexico requires an explanation which we 
can best give by quoting from Fitzgerrell's 
Official Guide, and in this connection we want 
to say that this Guide is a book published 
under the auspices of the Federal Government 
of Mexico. As a reliable source of informa- 
tion it can be compared with official reports 
in this country published by our Department 
of Agriculture. 

Air. Fitzgerrell's report on the soils of Trop- 
ical [Mexico is in part as follows : 

It is almost impossible for the dwellers of the 
northland to comprehend, without seeing it, the dense 
tropical growth on these lands of timber, vines, ferns 
and the most beautiful flowers — all making a picture 
of riotous growth impossible to imagine. It is a 
country where the soil never fails of feeding its 
luxuriant plant life. Under the influence of a con- 



tinuous summer sun, with a rainfall from 100 to 120 
inches per annum, vegetation runs riot. Everything 
planted in the ground and cared for grows vigor- 
ously. The story of continuous crops, of the pos- 
sibility of raising four crops on the same ground, 
and of two regular crops of corn, under proper cul- 
tivation of the soil, is founded on the actual experi- 
ence of reliable planters. 

The countless ages of "wash" from the mountain 
sides — the decayed vegetation of many centuries of 
tropical growth — has produced a vegetable "humus," 
a dark sandy loam two to twenty feet in depth, and 
of the most wonderful fertility. 

The different soils and elevations of land are 
very valuable for different products. The low-lying 
lands for siogar cane, .rice, para grass, etc. The 
valley lands 'for corn, potatoes, yuca and all the 
vegetables, fruits, cacao, coffee, spices, nuts and dif- 
ferent grasses. The mountain lands are very val- 
uable for coffee, indigo, henequen, pita and the 
fruits. No country in the world has such a small 
percentage of really waste lands. 

Ordinary soil analysis fails to account for the 
extraordinary fertility of tropical soils. It takes 



18 



Plain Facts About Mexico. 



into account only the mineral and organic elements 
of the soil, giving the other elements a general 
classification as vegetable matter or humus. 

It is now coming to be generally recognized that 
the soil is not a dead, inert thing, but is teeming 
with life and full of bacteria. 

Any analysis of a soil that does not include micro- 
scopic examination and experimental trial, is incom- 
plete. Doubtless there are bacterial constituents in 
the soil of which we are as yet completely unin- 
formed. 

Ordinary analysis of tropical soil, as compared 
with soils of the temperate zone, fail to give any 
explanation of the superior fertility of the former ; 
the difference in climate is assigned as accounting 
for the difference in fertility. In one way this is 
correct, but the fact is that the tropical soils contain 
bacteria (especially of nitrification), that the freez- 
ing of the soils in the colder climes destroy. 

Tropical soils with the same inorganic analysis as 
given by soils where the earth within the reach of 
the roots of ordinary crops is frozen, every year, or 
once in a decade, are invariably found to be more 
fertile in practice, and the real reason is that bac- 
teria maintains an existence in the soil of the 
Southern climes. Some of these bacteria no doubt 
exist in some Northern soils, as the fact of what 
Northern farmers know as winter killing shows, but 



there are also, no doubt, many varieties that are 
unable to survive in Northern localities. The fact 
that soils in the tropics that have been cultivated for 
over a century without any manuring, "rest" or fer- 
tilization, and still maintain a wonderful fertility 
and capacity to maintain crops, is really and natur- 
ally incredible to a Northern agriculturist, but the 
fact remains nevertheless, and can only be accounted 
for by accepting the theory that the number and 
variety of bacteria in the tropical soil draws 
(through the plants) nitrogen from the air, and 
dissolves the otherwise unavailable elements in the 
soil. In no other way can a reasonable theory be 
given to explain the facts. 

The length of the growing season in the tropics 
and the absence of frosts and freezing of the 5oil, 
or, in other words, the difference in the climate 
is a good general reason, but this does not explain 
the facts met with in tropical agriculture, or account 
for the extraordinary and peculiar fertility of the 
tropical soil. 

Cultivation and methods that in the North would 
quickly exhaust the best of soils, here in the tropics 
have but little bad effect for a generation. It is 
quite common to see fields with the most wasteful 
handling (according to the Northern ideas and cus- 
toms), that after a century of such abuse, still re- 
tain a fertility that is astonishing.' 



Things that Grow in Tropical Mexico. 



^X THE following account of the products 
^ of this marvelous Gulf Coast Country of 
Mexico we are quoting from two author- 
ities, viz : Fitzgerrell's Official Guide, the re- 
liability of which has been explained under 
the heading of "Soil," and a book on iMe.xico 
published by the International Bureau of 
American Republics in Washington, D. C. 
A general list of the products is as follows: 

Tropical Products and Fruits. 

Coffee, rubber, vanilla, sugar cane, cacao, 
cocoanuts, papa3'as, bananas, pineapples, or- 
anges, limes, lemons, grape fruit, figs, pome- 
granates, nectarines, mangoes, mameyes, agua- 
cates, tamarindos, zapotes (bianco and negro) 
chirimoyas, nanches (like crab apples), capu- 
lines (a red berry), poma rosa (rose apple), 
granada, guayaba, granadilla de China, jini- 
quiles (a pod), ersaladas (eaten raw), coyoles 
(a palm nut, the palm oil of commerce), ajon- 
joli (making an oil equivalent to olive oil), in- 
digo, jobo (a fruit like a plum, makes an ex- 
cellent wine), gooseberry, huckleberry, black- 
berry, strawberry, olives, sago, almonds, Eng- 
lish walnuts, apricots, prunes, pears, tunas, 
dates, cashaw nuts, otaheite, apples, jack fruit, 
honey, etc. 

Cereals, Vegetables, Etc. 

Corn, rice, kaffir corn, r3'e, barley, broom- 
corn, tobacco, cotton (bath plant and tree, dif- 
ferent species), castor beans (which grow to 
a tree here), ramie, hemp, hops, gumbo, pop- 
pies, artichokes, all kinds of potatoes, princi- 
pally the sweet varieties, yuca, tomatoes of 



different kinds and varieties that grow wild 
here and in great profusion, cabbage, turnips, 
radish, lettuce, cauliflower, egg plant, string 
beans, peas, chayotes, squash, pumpkins, musk- 
melons, watermelons, cantaloupes, celery (very 
fine ) , beets, onions, kale, mustard, cucumbers, 
peppers of chile (many different kinds and 
varieties , lima beans, cutels, meloco tones (a 
half melon and half squash, good either cooked 
or raw), garbanzos, verdolagas (wild greens 



.><t- 


iSL 


. ■ ^^ 


».f' 




i 


c 






fl 


»'»-«^M 


^^ 


'^b^y^^^B^ 




^^* 




^H 


^^M 




^ 




wL 


^r^l^^^^S?*^ 






M 




M 




. \ 




K 


l^t -.-. 




n^H 


■ 


1^1 



A Young Apple Tree in Tropical Mexico. 



A Wonderful Country. 



19 




i . A riuni Tree. 

equal to mustard), palm sprouts (which make 
an excellent salad), salsific (a pod), chicory 
(several varieties), beans (white, black and 
yellow ) . cow peas, etc. 

Medicinal Woods, Spices, Etc. 

Sarsaparilla, Jalap, ginger, anatto, arrow 
root, cloves, cinnamon, chincona. nutmegs, 
pepper, tea, cardemon. cana fistula delmonte, 
etc. 



ecjual to the general average single crop in the 
United States, the first crop planted Indian 
fashion, always good, and one crop of beans 
on the same land in each year, or he can sup- 
plant the crop of beans with a good crop of 
plant cotton, equal to the single crop produced 
in the United States, selling his staple at high 
prices, there is no question whatever about 
the \-alue of the Tropics of Mexico as a farm- 
ing and planting coimtry. 

Giant Corn. 

This corn grows in the difl^erent climates of 
the country, requires a rich soil, and owing to 
its great production, is a very suitable product 
for all farmers in this Republic. In the 
evergreen section of Mexico, the rainfall is 
ample for two crops per ann.um, without irri- 
gation. Once acclimated in any zone, it does 
not degenerate, providing the soil is of the 
proper richness. 

Broom Corn. 

Prof. .-\. W. Spawn, P. O. Rio Blanca, \'. 
C, writes: 

Among the many products of the soil prac- 
tically unknown in Alexico. that I find large 
areas of land well suited for, is broom corn. 
Last August I received some seed from the 
states, and planted it to demonstrate that it 
will grow in the Tropics of Me.xico. I planted 
the middle of August and harvested the first 
week in December, showing that two crops 
call be raised annually. The experiment was 



Fibrous Plants. 

Henequen, pita, lechuguilla, ramie, hemp, 
palma, redonda, capulin, cadillo, etc. 

Grasses. 

Para, camalote, privilegio (or (iuinea), 
clover, alfalfa, gramma, bermuda, Johnson 
and other native varieties. 

Cereals. 

.-ill these groie abundantly. 

Space docs not permit special mention of all 
the many products zchich may be profitably 
(/roicn with little or no care, in the tropics of 
Mexico, but a brief description of a fcz\.' of 
tlu most important ones follow. 

Corn. 

In view of the fact that corn and. beans are 
the staple foods of the country, the market is 
steady and profitable. When the farmer is 
assured of two crops of corn ])cr annum, each 




.\n Olive Tree. 



20 



Plain Facts About Mexico. 



very satisfactory. Broom corn brush at this 
time is selling in the states at from $80.00 to 
$100.00 gold per ton. I believe there are two 
small factories in Mexico, now making brooms, 
importing the brush from the United States, 
using from 75 to 100 tons a year. The de- 
mand for American brooms is increasing rap- 
idly. The European countries are all large 
importers of broom corn, and with the reason- 
able transportation from the seaport of Vera 
Cruz to all European ports, there is no reason 
why, after supplying the home market, broom 
corn should not become a profitable export. 



bo.xes, using all I could in my family, I sold five 
boxes to the hotel in this place at $10.00 per box,- 
the manager of the hotel preferring to pay me 
$10.00 than to pay $9.50 for potatoes shipped from 
Vancouver. These bo.xes contained 100 pounds 
each." 

Note — The above account of potatoes is 
written by us, not quoted from the authorities 
mentioned under the heading, "Things That 
Grow in Tropical ^Mexico. 

Camotes (Sweet Potatoes). 

Mexico is the natural home of the sweet 
potato. There are three varieties grown, the 




A Corn Field in Mexico. 



Potatoes. 

The Irish potato is one of the few products 
that has not been generally considered a suc- 
cess in Tropical Mexico. The natives have 
been satisfied with several excellent substitutes, 
and the fact that the potato, such as we are 
accustomed to, has not been grown in Trop- 
ical Mexico has been due simply to the lack 
of intelligent experimental work with that 
product, as the following extract from a let- 
ter written by Mr. G. M. Clark, of Rincon 
Antonio, Oaxaca, will show. Mr. Clark says: 

"Referring to your inquiry as to my success in 
growing potatoes, I beg to advise, that in February 
last I planted two boxes of Vancouver potatoes, 
and after giving my friends quite a number of 



bianco (white), amarillo (yellow), and Col- 
orado (red). The flesh of the Colorado is 
about the color of the red beet. All three 
varieties are of good size, very sweet, and de- 
sirable for table use. 



Onions. 

Although a few onions are still imported, 
Mexico raises a sufificient amount to supply 
her inhabitants. This crop in the Valley of 
Mexico is always a reliable- one, and some of 
the finest onions of the world are produced 
here. It is also a profitable crop in the Trop- 
ics, but so far has received little attention. 



A \\'oxDERFUL Country. 



21 



Tomatoes. 

Tomatoes grow naturally in the Tropics of 
Mexico, from where they are shipped to the 
United States at all seasons of the year. 

Beans. 

Mexico is famous for its Chile Beans and 
Chile Peppers. The export trade for these 
products is immense. Other excellent varie- 
ties of beans grow in marvelous abundance. 
The Castor Bean is a very valuable and profit- 
able crop. It grow-s to be quite a tree, and 
produces practically a continuous crop. 



season, ample time is given after the crop is 
harvested to put in a crop of corn, or to take 
care of the volunteer rice, and then put in a 
crop of beans, or some other short crop. It 
should be borne in mind that in this favored 
land the crops are continuous. It is a simple 
matter of sowing and harvesting the year 
round. There is a home market at high prices 
for all the rice that can be produced in Mex- 
ico for many years to come. 

With cheap labor and a steady, reliable 
open market, at high prices for all that can 
be produced, the cultivation of rice is very 
profitable in Mexico. 




A Tame Grass Pasture. 



Rice in Tropical Mexico. 

Tropical r^Iexico is the paradise of the rice 
grower. Xo irrigation is needed and an abun- 
dant crop is certain. The soil is of greatest 
possible fertility, the climate is summer the 
year round, the rainfall is from 100 to 120 
inches per annum, giving the rice stalk all the 
water and nourishment required for a rapid 
and natural growth. ( Not forced as in the 
case of irrigation). An immense yield is the 
result, usually from 100 to 1.50 fold, while the 
volunteer or second growth, if cared for, will 
also yield an abundant crop. The rice farmer 
in Texas would be rather surprised to see the 
immense stalks of rice from five to seven feet 
high, with heads of fine, plump grain in pro- 
portion, in Mexico, as compared with the 
Texas rice. 

In Tropical Mexico the rice is planted at 
the beginning of the rainy season, and as 
the harvesting- comes at the end of the rainv 



Sugar Cane in Tropical Mexico. 

The sugar cane industry is as old as his- 
tory. In the United States the production of 
sugar cane is confined to the Gulf states, prin- 
cipally Louisiana. Tropical Mexico exceeds 
Cuba or the Hawaiian Islands in the produc- 
tion of sugar cane, in tonnage, in saccharine 
matter, and in cheapness of production. 

The cane, especially on the Gulf slope, grows 
to an enormous size, and does not need re- 
growing for ten years at least. 

No plow"ing or irrigating is needed. 

Clearing, planting and cultivation does not 
cost $45 per acre, and the cane is ready to cut 
in ten months after planting. The plant pro- 
duces from 30 to 33 tons of cane per acre, 
yielding 20 to 25 tons of juice, containing 
from 15 to 16 per cent of crystallizable sugar, 
and a plantation well cared for will yield for 
thirtv vears. 



24 



Plain Facts About Mexico. 



It is claimed that in Vera Cruz, Oaxaca and 
Chiapas as much as 60 tons of cane is pro- 
duced to the acre. 

The official report for 1903 of the great 
Ewa plantation in Hawaii shows the cost of 
irrigation was $37.33 per acre, to say nothing 
of the great cost of pumping stations, water 
ditches, laterals, etc., adding largely to the 
capital on which dividends must be paid. Yet 
this great company has paid millions of dol- 
lars in dividends to its stockholders. 

The capital stock of the Ewa plantation is 
$5,000,000.00 (gold), much of which is wat- 
ered stock, or, in other words, has been issued 
to the sharehulders as stock dividends. 



of irrigation, makes the Tropics of Mexico 
the most desirable sugar producing country 
in the world. 

Cotton. 

Cotton has been cultivated in Ale.xico from 
time immemorial. Prior to the advent of the 
Aztecs in the Valle}' of Mexico, their prede- 
cessors knew and practiced the art of cotton 
spinning. 

Although Mexico is so thoroughly adapted 
by soil and climate to the production of this 
fiber, and although she has an acreage suffi- 
cient to produce it in quantities greater than 




.A Field of Growing Sugar Cane. 



It is interesting to know that the cash divi- 
dends paid for the first six months of 1905 
were 9 per cent. 

The statement is made of a 3,750-acre sugar 
plantation in Hawaii. The sugar brought last 
year over $1,750,000.00 (gold) sold in Hono- 
lulu. Being on the leeward side of the island, 
this plantation is dry and requires irrigation 
and ferdlization. Under this head, a sum of 
nearly $500,000.00 (gold) must be deducted. 
In the Tropics of Mexico, with ample rain- 
fall, this item of expense will not appear. 

Again, from Hawaii the freight to New 
York around the Horn is about $10.25 (gold), 
and to New York by rail from San Francisco 
is about $13.00 (gold), per ton. 

The freight on Mexico's sugar crop is much 
less than the competing sugar crop from 
Hawaii, besides the great saving in the cost 



the United States, she is not only not an ex- 
porting nation, but actually imports annually 
about $2,000,000.00 worth of the staple to sup- 
ply the demands of her factories. 

The methods of cultivation of cotton in 
Mexico -are still rather primitive, the plow, 
until very recently, being little used, and na- 
ture being left to exercise her agencies un- 
aided. There are great advantages in the cul- 
tivation of'Mexican cotton, as the plants con- 
tinue to bear profitable crops without the use 
of fertihzers on the soil or the renewal of 
seed, which is necessary each year in the 
United States. 

The "Laguna District" at present produces 
about 85 per cent of the cotton produced in 
Mexico which is an irrigation country. Cot- 
ton growers and manufacturers are now wak- 
ing up to the fact that the Tropics of Mexico, 



A Wonderful Country. 



25 



with ample rainfall, produces a staple equal 
to the "Laguna" staple, and that the cost of 
production is much less. This fact is causing 
a rapid increase in the amount of cotton pro- 
duced in the Tropics, where the soil is very 
favorable to its growth, as well as very 
profitable. 

It is a proven fact that the States of \"era 
Cruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas produce a superior 
staple, a greater yield per acre than does the 
Laguna District. It is urged that the cultiva- 
tion of cotton, especially the sea island vari- 
ety, be promoted in the Evergreen portion of 
the Tropics, where is ample rainfall for the 
sea island without irrigation. 

In the "Laguna District" good lands, with 
an available water supply for irrigation, are 
worth about $400.00 per acre, while lands ad- 
joining, for which no water can be had, are 



any amount in excess of what could be manu- 
factured at home, could be marketed at a good 
profit. 

Sr. Alanuel Diaz Barriga, of the IMexican 
I'inancial Agency, in London, says: "If all 
the lands best situated for cotton culture were 
taken into account, the Mexican Republic 
could easily become a formidable rival of the 
L'nited States and India." 

Tobacco. 

The Cultivation of Tobacco in Mexico is 

\'erv Profitable — The Tobacco is 

Among the Very Finest in 

THE World. 

The following report is based on a crop of 

twenty-five acres. Granting proper soil and 

location, and that the lands have been cleared 




A Four-vear-old Rubber Forest. 



worth from $3.00 to $7.00 per acre. This in- 
dicates the water value of irrigated land for 
the production of cotton to be worth from 
$393.00 to $397.00 per acre. In Tropical Mex- 
ico, the yield of cotton is enormous, with 
ample rainfall for all purposes. The actual 
value of these lands should be equal to the 
irrigated lands of the "Laguna District." 

From one to one and one-half bales can be 
produced per acre, and the cotton has to be 
replanted only every four to seven years, on 
Mexican lands, and there is an enormous sav- 
ing of labor and expense on the last item, as 
compared with the Southern States. 

Cotton can be shipped from Mexican ports 
to Europe and other parts of the world, as 
cheaply as from the Lfnited States, so that 



as the native'clears them, and the tobacco cul- 
tivated, as the native cultivates it. for two 
years, 25 acres should produce 400,000 plants. 
Allowing 10 per cent for failure, there 
would be 360,000 plants to mature. There 
are tobacco plantations in Tuxtepec County. 
State of Oaxaca. where the entire output for 
1904 sold for $20.00 per arroba, and the 1903 
crop sold at $25.00 per arroba. Probably the 
average price for the last two years for the 
product of well known plantations has been 
not less than $16.00 per arroba. On new 
lands 1.000 plants should produce three ar- 
robas. which make 1.080 arrobas of 25 pounds 
each, for the entire crop of the 25 acres in 
two years, or 27,000 pounds, equal to 540 
pounds per acre per annum. 



26 



Plain Facts About Mexico. 



(Jn the supposition that the new planter only 
realizes one-half the average price at Tuxte- 
pec, or $8.00 per arroba, his 1,080 arrobas 
would yield him $8,640.00. 

The seed beds are prepared in August, 
plants set in September and the crop harvested 
early in December. Even before the crop is 
harvested, corn is planted between the rows. 
Besides the tobacco crop, it is possible to 'har- 
vest two crops of corn, and often one of beans 
in a single year from the same ground. An- 
swering the question, "Is the growing of to- 
bacco an experiment in Mexico?" it is as 
thoroughly established an industry as exists 
in the world. The Indians of Tuxtepec raised 
tobacco and exported it to the highlands in 
the days of the Aztecs, centuries before the 
Spanish conquest. Any of the following 
named experienced tobacco planters will tell 
you what they have done : 

Candido Fernandez, Valle Nacional, Tuxte- 
pec County, State of Oaxaca, sixteen years 
ago was working for $40.00 (silver), per 
month. His annua! income today exceeds 
$75,000.00. 

Manuel Fernandez Peon, \'alle Nacional, 
without any capital to start on, has accumu- 
lated $100,000.00 during the last four years. 

In 1902 Jose Rodriguez was bankrupt. His 
estate is now valued at $700,000.00. 

Benito Gonzalez Bros., Cosamaloapam, 
State of Vera Cruz, during the past sixteen 
years have made $500,000.00 in the cultivation 
of tobacco. 

Juan and Rosendo Prieto, Calle Nacional, 
both Mexicans and born in San Juan Evan- 
gelista, A^era Cruz, have, during the past four 
years, cleared $80,000.00 in tobacco. 

These are but a few of the many, and all 
these gentlemen are willing to answer cour- 
teous inquiries. They are of large affairs and 
have no lands to sell. 

Balsa Hermanos, of Vera Cruz, cultivates 
a 10,000-acre tobacco plantation in the Rio 
Papaloapam, above Tuxtepec, for which they 
have refused $2,000,000.00. Their two cigar 
factories, one in Vera Cruz, the other in 
Pueblo, employ 1,500 people. The Valle Na- 
cional Tuxtepec tobacco crop is valued at $2,- 
OOO.OOO.OO for the year 1904. 

At the Paris Exposition ( 1889) jMexican 
tobacco obtained gold, silver and bronze med- 
als, being considered equal to, if^ not the su- 
perior of, Habana tobacco. In 1894 and 1895 
"La Regie," a department created in France 
to regulate the importation and traffic of to- 
bacco, began to accept the Mexican product. 

The Mexican tobacco has a flavor peculiarly 
its own, and grows upon one, and where it 
has been used for any length of time, as upon 
the western coast of the United States, it is 
rapidly superseding the Cuban article. 



Rubber. 

The United States is the importer of mil- 
lions of dollars worth of rubber annually. The 
use of it has grown to immense proportions. 
The world's supply is rapidly decreasmg, ow- 
ing to the fact that the supply of wild rubber 
is rapidly being exhausted. The supply of 
cultivated rubber is just coming in to supply 
the deficiency. The price of rubber is stead- 
ily advancing, and is expected to advance for 
several years, as the production is not keeping 
pace with the consumption. 

Tropical Mexico is the home of the wild 
rubber tree. There are to be found large 
numbers of old cultivated trees which were 
planted for shade, for coft'ee or for cacao. 
jMany plantations plant thousands of them, 
and they have given good results when tapped. 

For the average tropical farmer or planter, 
who does not intend to engage in rubber cul- 
ture extensively, the planting of rubber trees 
on any available spot is a wise practice, as 
shown by the income gained by the natives 
from the trees they have in production, 
planted around their homes in the towns and 
cities. 

Mexican rubber trees can be tapped but twice 
a year, without injury. Natives never tap 
oftener. It has been considered that trees 
must be eight years old before tapping, but 
recent tests have shown that under proper 
conditions they can be tapped at the age of 
five years at a profit, without injury. The 
photos show experiments made with the Smith 
Patent Tapper, in comparison with the old 
machete way. The former gives vastly better 




A Mulberry Tree. 



A Wonderful Country. 



27 



results, both as lo swiftness of operation and 
yield of latex, and as my tapper cuts only the 
bark, the tree is uninjured. It is not gen- 
erally known that it requires an expert to tap 
rubber trees with a machete, but with this 
knife, anyone can tap, which makes the serv- 
ices of a professional tapper unnecessary. The 
spiral tapping is suitable for the Hevea or 
I'ara, the rubber of Brazil, but will not answer 
fijr the Castilla, or Mexican varietw which 
should be tapped hui twnce a \ear. 

.'recs I'aii lir l.ii'ir.l :-\>v\ mi>nlli in llir 




Tapping a Rubljer Troo. 

year, but September, October, Xovember and 
December give the best yield and the least 
injury to the trees. 

There are several varieties of the Castilla 
tree growing on the Isthmus of Tehauntepec, 
and there seems to be considerable difiference 
in the same variety, when grown on the Gulf 
side or on the Pacific side of the Isthmus. 
Sufficient time has not elapsed to determine 
from experiments made, what species or va- 
rieties are best adapted to the different clim- 



atic and rainfall conditions, to be found in 
the various portions of the Tropics. It should 
be borne in mind that on the Gulf side, the 
rainfall is greater and more continuous than 
on the Pacific side, where from October to 
■May it is very light. 

Experienced growers know there is con- 
siderable difiference in the yield from indi- 
vidual trees, but this can be ascertained only 
from tapping, there being no outward sjgns. 

No Castilla tree '"bleeds to death" from 
opening the latex containing vessels only. The 
death of the tree results from cutting into the 
wood, and severing the connection of the sap 
vessels, which are necessary to the life of the 
tree. 

Until experience has proven beyond a doubt 
which are the best varieties of rubber to raise, 
plantation managers, in selecting seed for 
planting, should obtain it from such trees as 
are known to be good milk producers. 

Mr. T- Herbert Foster, manager of the 
"Tula (ic los Tuxtlas" Plantation, Postoffice 
Tula, \'. C, writes: 

"We are just beginning the tapping of our rubber 
trees. Last year, when they were six years old, 
by tests I found that an average tree contained 
about six ounces of dry creamed rubber, and this 
year, as the increase is about one-third per cut, the 
average capacity would be about eight ounces, but 
we are tapping only one ounce, as we do not wish 
to risk injuring the trees. The above yield refers 
to the average sized trees, our average being eight 
inches diameter a foot above the ground, although 
we have many more than a foot thick. The height 
is from 20 to 40 feet. Last year's cuts are healed 
o\-er, and new cuts made across or between them, 
yield as much latex as elsewhere in the tree. 

In tapping we are using a V-shaped carpenter's 
chisel, with a guard to prevent its going too deep 
into the tree. We make seven cuts, aboui eight 
inches long, and place an enameled iron cup at the 
lower end of each, to catch the latex. With this 
number of cuts the trees, according to size, give 
from one-half to one ounce of dry creamed rubber. 
We will tap twice or three times this year. 

The latex is diluted in about twentv times its 
volume of water, to enable us to strain it, then 
stands twenty-four hours. The rubber comes to the 
surface, nnd' much of the allnunen and other ele- 
ments not wanted liy the manufacturer are elim- 
inated. 

One of our nei<?hbors has just commenced tap- 
ping, and it is costing Iiim 25 cents gold per pound 
to tap, prepare and ship the rubber. He is not 
creaming the latex, so the product will only bring 
him 85 cents to $1 gold per pound, in the New York 
market. Samples of our rubber, submitted to parties 
in the United States were considered worth $1.20 to 
$1.40 gold per pound, and it costs us to produce 
but twenty cents gold per pound. Of course the 
cost to us now, for taking one ounce from the tree, 
is as much as a pound will be later en, so as the 
yield increases, expenses will proportionately de- 
crease.'' 

There was imported, of ruliber, into the 
United States, the fiscal year ending June 30th. 
as folliiws : 

Yi;,\R ■ PonNDS V.-\LUE. 

1904 ' 59,015.537 $40,444,250 

]Q05 67,2.34,25') 49.'i78.%6 

1906 ' ' 57,844.-345 45,114,450 



Plain Facts About Mexico. 



Coffee. 

^Mexican coffee is of excellent qualit}?. It 
has a high standing and commands good 
prices in the markets of Europe, the demand 
rapidly increasing, especially in Germany, 
France, England and Belgium. In the United 
States there is a very great demand, and a 
number of large concerns are giving their en- 
tire attention to the Mexican berry. 

Coffee is not indigenous to Mexico, but was 
originally brought from the West Indies in 
1790. Still, it was not until 1818 that it was 
properly cultivated, when Don Juan A. Gomez, 
called the Benefactor of Cordoba, demon- 
strated that Mexico had the soil and climate 
essential to the cultivation of coffee. 



Annual expense of cultivation (one tree) $0.01 

Annual yield for each tree, pounds 10 

In the state of Oaxaca on one plantation, 
21 months after planting, the trees yielded 
5 pounds of dry coffee each. 

In the same state the average crop is 6 
pounds of coffee for each tree, and there are 
trees producing 25 pounds of dry coft'ee a 
year. 

In the above schedule of Romero's estimates, 
he takes only one pound as the average yield 
of Mexican coffee trees. In arriving at this 
figure he takes into consideration all kinds of 
coft'ee plantations, those laid out in poor lo- 
calities, in poor seasons, and improperly cul- 
tivated. But it seems to be pretty well set- 




A Coffee Grove in "Vera Cruz. 



Mr. Mafias Romero, who for many years 
devoted his attention to coft'ee culture, esti- 
mated the results of coffee raising as follows : 





Cost of 
planting 
a tree. 


Annual 
product 
of a tree. 
Pounds. 


Expense 
of culti- 
vating 
one tree. 


Net 
profit. 
Per cent. 


In India 

In Ceylon . . . 
In Mexico. . 


$0,201/ 
.23 
.12 


0.4563 
0.4563 
1 


$0.04 
.03'^ 

.05 


25.49 
25.15 
QO 



Romero's averages have been considered too 
high as regards the cost of cultivation and 
too low as regards the annual yield in Mex- 
ico. In an official publication appears the 
statement that in the state of Chiapas, where 
the land is good, and care and economy have 
been exercised in the cultivation, the follow- 
ing have been the results : 



tied that good lands, cultiisited under proper 
conditions, will render crops of from 4 to 10 
pounds per tree. 

An American coffee expert of Fortin and 
Cordoba, State of "Vera Cruz, states that the 
profits reach 150 per cent per annum. 

The coft'ee tree requires partial shade. It 
is fast becoming the custom to plant bananas 
for this purpose, thus deriving a double profit 
from the land. 

Chocolate. 

The Cacao tree, (Theobroma Cacao), is a 
native of Southern Mexico, and grows wild 
in the forests of "Vera Cruz and Chiapas, but 
the pod thus produced is smaller than in the 
cultivated state. The word cacao, like choco- 
loti, from which the word chocolate is derived, 
is purely Mexican, which is suggestive of the 



A W'OXUICUFUL COL'.NTK 



29 



fact that this is a natural cacao countr)'. The 
importance of this industry is greatl}- over- 
looked when considering the most important 
products. 

The cacao is the chocolate of commerce. It 
is made from large seeds of the cacao tree. 
The growth of the importation of cocoa into 
the United States in recent years has been 
more rapid than coffee, while the importation 
of tea has shown no material increase. Choco- 
late manufacturing establishments have grown 
from seven in 1880 to thirtv-five in 1900. The 
capital employed in 1880" was $530,000, in 
1900 $6,8*^)0.732. 



and the plants are raised from cuttings, which 
should be set near a tree or permanent post, 
for support. The plants commence to seed 
the second year, and will be in full bearing 
the fourth year. The flowers are fertilized by 
insects, humming birds or by hand, as self- 
pollination is impossible. The plant flowers 
in February and March, and the pods are ripe 
in five months. When the beans are properly 
cured, they can be packed in cans, soldered up 
and shipped to any part of the world. 

\'anilla is also valuable as a side crop, and 
where one has a tropical plantation under cul- 
tivation, the cost of producing it is very small. 




PickiiiEf over Coffee. 



United States Consul Donolson reports of 
the cultivation of cacao as follows: 

"Tlie growing of cacao is one of the most lucra- 
tive industries in the tropics. The trees are planted 
four yards apart, or about 400 to the acre. Calcu- 
late an output of four pounds to the tree at 25c 
(gold) per pound, they would give an annual re- 
turn of $400.00 (gold). The packing and preparing 
for market is much more easy than coffee, as cacao 
grows in large pods, containing from fifteen to 
twenty-five beans each, on trees ten to twelve feet 
high. The trees grow very luxuriantly along the 
coast and river valleys, and at levels up to 2,000 
feet elevation, but produce best at an elevation of 
from 300 to TOO feet above sea level." 

Vanilla. 

\ anilla is a native of Mexico, and has been 
used from time iminemorial by the natives 
for flavoring chocolate. ]\[uch of the vanilla 
of commerce is still gathered from vines which 
grow wild in the tropical woods. A rich, 
well drained soil is required for its culture. 



The cost of caring for 100 vines and curing 
the crop would be about $15 per year. These 
should yield 500 pods, worth, according to 
quality, from $8 to $20 per 100. Of course, 
where the vanilla bean is made the leading 
crop, and particular attention given to its pro- 
duction, expenses are proportionately smaller 
and the net income greater than above stated. 
A good vanilla plantation is a gold mine, but 
this product seems to be receiving less atten- 
tion than circumstances warrant. 

There was imported into the United States 
for five years, vanilla beans as follows : 

YE.AR. NO. OF LBS. V.\LUE. 

1902 361,739 $ 859.399 

1903 521,669 1.032,654 

1904 550,328 1,424,647 

1905 608,116 871.442 

1906 852.505 1,321.550 

London prices range from 83X to 25 and 
37 '2 cents gold, per pound, owing to condition 
and value. 



30 



Plain Facts About Mexico. 



Henequen. 

This industry has been heretofore almost 
entirely confined to Yucatan, but is now 
spreading to other parts of Mexico, where the 
soil and climate are suitable for the produc- 
tion of henequen. It has been generally un- 
derstood that the plant thrives best and de- 
velops to its greatest value on arid, stony land, 
but recent developments have proven beyond 
question that it reaches its greatest perfection 
when grown in rich soil. The essential ele- 
ment of the soil in either case is a good per- 
centage of lime deposit, which is found in the 
highlands as well as in the level coast lands. 



A jute field has the appearance of a field of 
willows — it is a kind of willow. It grows to 
the height of about twelve to fourteen feet, 
and is easy to cut and handle. Its preparation 
for the market is very simple, does not re- 
quire any special machinery, is easy to culti- 
vate, and very profitable. The cHmate and 
soil conditions in ^Mexico are ideal for the cul- 
tivation of jute. 

The supply of the raw material has become 
a serious question with the manufacturers 
throughout the world. They are now looking 
to Mexico for a supply, at increased prices. 

The two jute mills in the Republic consume 
about 5,000 tons annuallv, manufacturing 




Growing Bananas and Corn on the- same ground. 



Sr. E. Ampudia Chavero, a planter of many 
years' experience, at Tapachula, Chicapas, near 
the Guatemala border line, says : 

"While henequen will grow on arid land, that will 
produce nothing else, it thrives better in rich soil, 
where there is plenty of rainfall. Here the crop 
matures in three years, while it requires about five 
years in Yucatan, and the length of the fibre is also 
greater here, being, at the end of three years, four 
to five feet, and after the fifth year, five, or more 
feet, so that only IS leaves are required for one 
pound of finished fibre. Each plant produces annu- 
ally, after the third year, an average of two pound.s 
and after the fifth year three pounds of clean fibre. 
At the prevailing price we expect to make a net 
profit of about three cents gold per pound." 

Jute Fibre — A Profitable Industry. 

India at present is practically the sole source 
of supply, but its production is waning in 
quantity and quality. 

The staple grown in Mexico is pronounced 
"excellent in quality, beautiful white in color, 
clean, level fibre, and in sound condition." 



about 4,000,000 jute sacks. Mexico uses about 
22,000,000 annually, consequently there is a 
grand opening, not only for the successful 
and profitable cultivation of jute, but to the 
capitalist in the building of additional mills. 
The present mills are filled with rush orders 
and adding rapidly to their capacity. 

Certainl}' the advantages of freight, com- 
missions, duty, warehouse charges and ship- 
pers' profits are largely in favor of the Mexi- 
can producer. This, in connection with cheap 
labor, continuous crops and ample rainfall re- 
quired by this product, appeals at once to the 
agriculturist as being worthy of careful at- 
tention, when it is known that the annual crop 
of India amounts to about 6,500,000 bales, or 
1,200,000 tons, at $60.00 (gold) per ton, the 
market price ranges from $50 to $100 (gold) 
per ton. The average yield in India ranges 
from two to three tons per acre. The expor- 



A WoNUERFUL COUXTRV. 



31 



tation of jute bags from Calcutta, India, for 
the year 1903, was 558,204,937; for the year 
1904, was 385,946,327. While the exporta'tion 
of bags shows a decrease, the shipment of jute 
cloth was greater. The value of all manufac- 
tures was greater by 5 per cent. 

Cocoanuts. 

The cocoanut tree is one of the most beauti- 
ful of tropical palms and there is a great profit 
from its products. 

Sr. Don Pablo de Royal, of Tuxtepec, Uax- 
aca, writes of the cocoanut industry in ^Mexico 
as follows : 

"There is a fortune in raising cocoanuts. After 
the fourth year, when the trees begin bearing, the 
yield increases until the average is aliout 300 to 401!) 



Trices of cocoanut products are advancing; 
copra now bringing $95-62 gold, per ton, in 
London. 

The cocoanut palm grows tall, and its um- 
brella top furnishes excellent shade fur such 
products as coffee and cacao, which are often 
planted among the trees, thus utilizing all the 
land and giving a double profit. 

There was imported into the L'nited States 
during the fiscal year ending Jime 30, 1906, 
cncoanut products as follows: 



Nuts in shell, duty free 

Copra, not shredded, duty free 15,893,260 
Dessicated and prepared, duty 
2c lb 3,116.620 



v.\h;e. 

1.135,112 

506,643 

181,560 




A Chocolate Plantation. 



nuts per tree per annum, and a tree usually bears 
until about tifty years old. The nut is always in 
demand, the shell is used for buttons, drinking cups, 
etc., and the bark is a splendid resistant of defense 
on the iron-clad man-of-war. The nuts sell at the 
tree for four cents each, or fifty cents per dozen." 

.\ cocoanut grove, once established, yields 
a good profit, with no attention except to 
gather and prepare the nuts for market. 
There is a world's market for copra and cocoa- 
nut oil. the latter being largely used in the 
manufacture of soap, medical preparations, 
druggist supplies, and late experiments have 
proven that it can be used successfully as an 
adulterant for butter, or as a substitute for 
lard and butter. As for fresh nuts, counting 
but 150 trees to the acre, with the low produc- 
tion of 150 nuts per tree, at three cents per 
nut, this gives an income of $675 per acre. 



Cassava — The Yuca of Mexico. 

There are two varieties of yuca, the bitter 
and the sweet. The sweet variety, most gen- 
erally, grown in Mexico, serves as a vegetable, 
both raw and cooked (an excellent substitute 
for potatoes), is ground into meal for bread 
or starch, and furnishes an excellent food for 
cattle, hogs and chickens. It has been used by 
the Indians, as a food, for many hundreds oi 
}-ears. 

In Mexico the planting may be done fron' 
October to May, and the tubes will be ready 
to harvest in from nine to twelve months. 
Each plant produces from 25 to 60 .tubers, 
which will keep in the ground for some time, 
but soon decay after being taken out, so 
should not be harvested until required for 
use. 



32 



Plain Facts About Mexico. 



For meal, the tubers are washed and peeled, 
then grated down to a coarse meal, by hand 
or horse power, which is sifted and dried on 
flat, shallow iron pans, over a slow fire, when 
it is ready for a table food. 

For starch, this meal is stirred up with 
water and passed through sieves, the meshes 
being smaller at each washing. After the last 
washing, the meal is left in water, when it set- 
tles to the bottom. The water is then drawn 
off, and the sediment is dried in the sun, pro- 
ducing the starch of commerce. 

An acre will jiroduce from 4,000 to 6,000 
pounds of starch, which has a value of from 



ized in more ways, can be sold in more different 
forms, can be more cheaply converted into staple 
and finished products and can be produced for a 
smaller part of its selling price than any other 
crop." 

"It is unquestionably true that cassava, all things 
considered, comes nearer to supplying a perfect 
ration for farm stock than any other foods," 

"Exhaustive tests were inade in feeding to hogs, 
corn, cassava, pindas and goobers, which resulted 
in cassava and corn standing at the head of the list. 
The percentage of gain was 70 per cent for corn, 
against 95 per cent for cassava. The difference 
between the two is about 25 per cent in favor of 
feeding cassava to hogs." 

Counting the market value of cassava at 
$6.00 per ton, the result showed the actual 



HP'f^'?; 








.•\ Field of Rice in the Gulf Coast Country of ^Mexico. 



$300 to $400. The cost of cultivation is from 
$60 to $70 per acre, so the net profit in the 
manufacture of starch is from $240 to $330 
per aci-e. 

The government of the United States has 
made a series of experiments extending over 
several years in the cultivation of Cassava 
(Yuca) at the experimental farm at Lake 
City, Fla. 

The United States government report says : 
"It has been demonstrated to be the cheapest food 
for hogs and cattle, while it produces better starch 
than^ corn and potatoes. Several factories for mak- 
ing it into starch have met with such a success that 
other factories have been established. It can be util- 



cost of the meat, per pound, was 1.4 cents 
where cassava was used, and 3.6 cents per 
pound where com was used. 

Sago Tapioca. 

This grows well in the tropics, is raised by 
the natives and served as a dainty dish for the 
sick. There was imported by the United 
States for the year ending June 30th, 190S : 

Sago, crude, 4,769.673 pounds, valued at 
$61,978. Duty free. 

Tapioca cassava, 34,982,549 pounds, valued 
at $603,852. Duty free. 



A W'u.vDEKFUL Country. 



33 



Ginger. 

Ginger grows well in Tropical Mexico, is 
a profitable crop, and finds a ready market 
as a preserve or pickle. 

There was imported into the United States 
during the year ending June 30th, 1905 : 

Ginger root, 6,928,189 pounds, valued at 
S209.845. Duty free. 

Ginseng. 

In Hongkong the root of this plant com- 
mands a price of from $1,000 to $1,250, gold, 
per picul (133 1-3 pounds), where it has 
steady demand, for its supposed medicinal 
(]ualiti<-^. Tt^ cultivation i^ very simple. 



pan to London, Havre. Hamburg. San Fran- 
cisco, New York, Shanghai and Hongkong, 
to which ports millions are annually shipped. 
In Japan these plants grow in large areas, 
climbing trellis work. In Tropical Mexico 
they grow to perfection in almost any soil, 
with no care whatever. The vine resembles 
the gourd in appearance, while the product 
looks like a large cucumber. When young the 
fruit is as good to eat as the young marrow, 
but as it grows, it develops too much fiber 
to be eatable. These sponges are sold in drug 
stores and are found in all first class bath 
houses in the United States. There is a great 
profit in their production. 




It grows very luxuriantly iii the Tropics 
and is worthy of attention. 

Chicory : As a substitute for coffee is a 
very desirable crop, as it grows well and is 
very profitable. 

Sarsaparilla : Grows wild as a vine through- 
out the forests. It is gathered and used for 
medicine. 

Cinchona bark (quinine) grows well here. 

Indigo: Is the money crop in many por- 
tions of the Tropics. The necessary tanks 
and machinery have been erected to prepare 
indigo for the market on a number of planta- 
tions. 

Vegetable Sponges. 

People in Mexico generally, do not seem to 
be aware that the vegetable sponges, often 
seen growing in our gardens as a curiositv, 
form an important article of export from Ja- 



THE FRUIT BUSINESS IN TROPICAL 
MEXICO. 

The attention of the horticulturist and busi- 
ness man is called to the long list of all kinds, 
tropical, sub-tropical, and common fruits 
grown in Tropical ^lexico, to be found else- 
where in this report. 

\"ery many of them grow wild, uncared for 
and uncultivated, which are very valuable and 
need but the fostering of the fruit grower to 
become very popular. At present, a few of 
these fruits, such as the pineapple and the 
banana, command attention, although after 
supplying the local market the great bulk of 
the bananas produced is fed to the hogs as a 
fattening food, and as such is very nutritive. 
It makes the very, finest and sweetest class of 
hog products, much finer than corn, and is 
much cheaper. 



34 



Plain Facts About Mexico. 



It should be stated that all experiments 
made in the tropics of ]\Iexico with budded 
fruit from California and Florida, have been 
successful. 

Budded grape fruit from Florida set out on 
one of the leading tropical plantations in the 
Isthmus country five years ago is now (Sep- 
tember, 1906) loaded with fruit, the limbs 
requiring support. The fruit is of unusual 
size, color, flavor and perfection, and ready 
to ship in carload lots. The Florida "Eureka" 
lemon grows here to a greater size and per- 
fection than in Florida, while the common 
lemon and lime are in continuous shipping 
production of unequaled color, flavor and per- 
fection. 



present the 40.000,000 bunches of bananas 
sold in the American market annually go for- 
ward from the Tropics by ship to the various 
American seaports, and there they are dis- 
tributed by rail throughout the country. Even 
under the adverse conditions of shipping by 
steamer, and rehandling at the various sea- 
ports, there is a large trade springing up, of 
the various delicious tropical fruits, such as 
Ihe pineapple, mangoes, zapotes, mameyes. 
aguacates, grape fruit, pomegranates, nectar- 
ines, tamarindos, limes, sweet lemons, chiri- 
moyas, granadas, guayavas, granadillas, figs, 
papaya and other fruits. 

In this connection it should be stated that 
during the present season many carloads of 




Cocoanut Point Port of Mexico. 



Naval oranges, from both California and 
Florida, are grown here superior to the parent 
tree, while oranges, nectarines, tangarines, 
mandarines and similar fruits are ready to 
ship in marketable lots from the 1st to 15th 
of October each year, demonstrating the fact 
that the tropics of IMexico is a superior fruit 
country. 

The attention of fruit men, commission men 
and shippers is called to the railroad distance 
and time table .showing that the "Heart of the 
Tropics" is now within easy shipping distance 
of the United States market, the time from 
any shipping point on the Pan American R. R. 
to New York via Port of Mexico is seven 
days in connection with steam line, and is 
the first tropi-cal country reached by rail con- 
necting the Northland with the Tropics, and 
is the realization of the dream of the great 
American statesman, James G. Blaine. At 



oranges, lemons, pineapples and other sub- 
tropical and tropical fruits have been success- 
fully shipped by railroad direct to Canada 
tln-ough the United States, in bond, thus open- 
ing up a new and very desirable market for 
all classes of tropical fruits and products that 
should command the earnest attention of trop- 
ical planters. As the Canadian market is a 
large one, and with the successful inaugura- 
tion of the Canadian-^Mexican steamship line, 
between Canadian parts and ^lexican gulf 
ports, the tropical planters will find a new and 
ready market for their products. 

The different transportation companies are 
anxious to hasten this fruit shipping industry, 
and will give special attention to its care. 
Thev state they will meet competition from 
California points to the markets of the United 
States and Canada, in time and freight rates. 

No irrigation is needed. There is a well 



A WoXDERFL'L CulXTin. 



35 



defined wet and dry .-easoii, with ample rain- 
fall the year ronnd fur all kinds of fruit and 
crops. 

Attention is called and careful study is 
asked of the temperature and rainfall tables 
elsewhere, that fully sustain the statement 
tl'.at Tropical ^Mexico is the best fruit country 
on the Xorth American continent. 

It will be noted that the fluctuation of tem- 
jierature in the Tropics of Mexico is seldom 
more than 30° Fall, per annum. The ma.xi- 
mum average temperature for Los Angeles, 
Cal., during September, 1904, was 83.4° Fah., 
while the maximum average temperature for 
the same month in the "Heart of the Tropics" 
w as about the same. The annual fluctuation 
of temperature at Los Angeles, Cal., and in 
the orange belt, is from 60" to 70° Fah., while 
the fluctuation of temperature for September, 
1904. in the Tropics of Mexico was 21° Fah. 
A careful study of the temperature reports 
shows that it is never too hot nor is it ever cold 
in the "Heart of the Tropics." 

Northern Fruits in the Tropics. 

Those who are skeptical about producing 
successfully, all kinds of northern fruits in 
the Tropics, should visit the nursery of the 
American Fruit and Produce Co., at Maltrata, 
State of \'era Cruz, the elevation being be- 
low the frost line, where they will find as fine 
trees and fruits as can be grown in the best 
northern nurseries. 

After a series of experiments, extending 
over a period of several years, it has been 
demonstrated beyond a doubt that it is a mat- 
ter of acclimatizing the tree, selecting suit- 
able soil, and planting- and cultivating in a 
proper manner, to successfully produce all 
kinds of northern fruits such as apples, pears, 
quinces, apricots, plums, peaches, cherries, 
blackberries, raspberries, dewdjerries, straw- 
berries, etc., of a large size, good color and 
delicious flavor. These fruits can be pro- 
duced in the Tropics as successfully as in the 
Highlands. It is impossible to give an ade- 
quate idea of the commercial value of such 
fruits as these, in ^Mexico. 

Oranges and Lemons. 

Tropical Mexico is the natural home of the 
orange and lemon. They grow wild in the 
forests, and are so common that no attention 
is paid to them. Little effort has been made 
to improve the quality or introduce new vari- 
eties, however, the fruit from the few trees 
that have been budded and grafted, shows a 
'superiority over the seedlings, and over the 
California and Florida products, in size, color 
ar.d flavor. .\s the Alexican oranges are readv 



for the market about two months earlier than 
those of California and Florida, and lemons 
are a continuous crop, there is no reason why 
this country should not supply the northern 
markets with a large proportion of these 
fruits, used in the United States and Canada. 

The native seedling orange grows wherever 
a seed chances to fall, uncultivated and un- 
cared for, producing a fruit of desirable size 
and color, with a flavor unexcelled, the fifth 
or sixth year, while the California seedlings 
do not bear fruit until about the fifteenth year. 

With no frosts; abundant rainfall, so that 
irrigation is unnecessary ; cheap lands ; the best 
of railway connections, meeting California 
competition in the way of time and freight 
rates, to the markets of the L'nited States and 
Canada, the production of oranges and lemons 
in ^lexico should be a very profitable in- 
dustry. 

Bananas and Their Cultivation in 
Tropical Mexico. 

Tropical IMexico is the home of the banana. 
There are some twenty varieties, from a small 
yellow variety to the large banana, which is 
cooked before being eaten, both of which are 
seldom seen in the l'nited States. The fol- 




Manaro Tree ai 



Fruit. 



36 



Plaix Facts About ;\Jexico. 



lowing report made by the Department of 
Fomento in tlie year 1899, and certified to by 
the American Consul in the City of Mexico, 
says : 

"Tlie banana is the most valuable fruit in Amer- 
ica. Its cultivation at this time gives almost fabu- 
lous profits on the soil which is especially adapted 
to its cultivation and development. It bears fruit 
one year after planting, and each plant bears a 
bunch, according to its variety containing from one 
hundred to two hundred bananas each. The culti- 
vation of the plant could not be simpler. The young 
shoots are planted in the ground^ the cultivator 
takes no further notice of them until the bananas 
are ripe for gathering ; the crop is certain. After 
producing its fruit the plant dies. For each stalk 
that withers, many shoots grow up around it, and a 
generation of different sizes arise to form a thicket 
in place of the single trunk which formerly existed ; 
so, from the first year the reproduction goes on, and 
four, six, or more bunches can be cut from each 
thicket. The harvests last the year around. The 



for fne year ending June 30, 1905, 38,093,80.3 

bunches of jjananas. Duty free. 

Value of bananas imported for three years, 

as follows : 

1904 $ 7,709,976 

1905 9,897,821 

1906 10,330,302 

Pineapples. — The Most Delicious of 
Fruits. 

The pineapple is one of the most delicious 
fruits grown in the tropics. It requires no 
more care and attention than the raising of 
cabbage, and like cabbage, is planted about 
4.000 plants to the acre. The apple grows 
from the shoots that spring up in great num- 
bers, around the base of the mother plant, 
when fruiting is complete. The shoots will 
produce ripe fruit in from twelve to eighteen 
months, owing to the variety. There are a 



-^r*?^' 



,^^€^^fe^lte 




Harvesting Su"ar Cane. 



generation is continuous, but the number of bunches 
is according to the age of the plant. 

,"The bunches run from 75 to 100 pounds of com- 
iTiercial bananas to each stalk." 

;By planting 12 feet apart each way, allow- 
ii^g 300 to the acre, there is no reason why 
oijie acre of good banana land should not pro- 
duce from 600 to 900 good sized bunches a 
year. By allowing four stalks only to grow, 
fqtu' months apart, a great majority, if not all, 
will give a bunch of fruit, and the crop will 
be continuous. 

:The banana, to be successful and perfect in 
size and flavor, requires about 100 inches of 
rainfall per annum. 

There was imported into the United States, 



munber of varieties, which ripen at different 
seasons, producing fruit of varying sizes. 
Pineapples weighing from ten to twenty-eight 
pounds are often seen. The crop is a sure 
one, and the apples sell in the markets of 
Mexico at from 20 cents to $1.00 each. 

Figs. 

One of the most delicious and healthful 
tropical fruits, the fig, thrives well in Tropical 
Mexico. 

There was imported into the United States, 
for consumption during the year ending June 
30, 1906, 13,775,190 pounds, valued at $654,- 
945. Duty 2 cents per pound. 



A WiixuEKFUL Country. 



37 



There were imported into United States for 
tlie year ending June 30, 1906, 2,270.538 gal- 
lons'' of olives, valued at $820,026. Duty 15 
to 25 cents per gallon. 

(Jf tamarinds, to the value of $1,667, duty 
free. IJoth of the products grow abundantly 
in Tropical Mexico. 

Grape Fruit. 

This luscious fruif is now finiling its way 
to the northern markets, and there is no rea- 
son why it should not soon become an im- 
portant product of export. The size, color 



fully known, there will be a great demand for 
it, not only in the fresh .state, but as preserves, 
pickles, condiments, etc. 

Dates. 

The date palm is not only a very ornamental 
tree, but is profitable for its fruit, it thrives 
in Tropical Mexico. 

There were imported b_\- the L'nited States 
iluring the year ending June 30th, 1905 : 

Dates, 19,226,261 pounds, valued at $404,- 
937. Duty yi cent per pound. 




.\ Field nt Pineapples in Early Growtl 



and flavor of the Mexican grape fruit are far 
superior to those of other tropical regions. 

There was imported by the United States, 
for the year ending June '30th, 1906, 1,659,375 
pounds, valued at $37,161. Duty 1 cent per 
pound. 

Strawberries. 

There are some fifty-six municipalities in 
the various .states of the Republic, where 
strawberries are successfully raised, but they 
are regularly exported from but one, where 
they are produced during the entire year. In 
the winter, they bring in St. Louis, 40 to 50 
cents per basket, gold. The strawberries are 
not large, but flavor and aroma are delicious. 

Mangoes. 

This fruit grows in great profusion in the 
Tropics of Mexico, its weight often breaking 
the branches of the trees. The mango is a 
splendid table fruit, and when its merits are 



THE STOCK RAISING INDUSTRY IN 
THE TROPICS. 

Cattle. 

This is much more profitable in Me.xico than 
in the United States or Canada. 

The general impression in the United States 
as to the cattle business in Mexico is perhaps 
gained from the climatic and general condi- 
tions existing in the northern states of the 
Republic, where the grass, soil, rainfall, etc.. 
are practically the same as found in Texas. 
New Mexico and Arizona. The traveler on 
the different railroads into IMexico passes 
many hundred miles over a country apparent- 
ly of no value, excepting for a cattle range. 

Judgment should be suspended until tropical 
Mexico is reached and e.xammed. Here there 
is no frost, but ample rainfall with unequaled 
climatic conditions. In this territory large 
cattle ranches will be found, with from lO.OOO 
to 35,000 head of cattle each. These are of a 



38 



Plain Facts Aijout ^Iexicu. 



very poor grade, owing to having been so long 
inbred. The ranges are entirely in the' hands 
of superintendents who are expected to turn 
off about so many shipping animals annually. 
No attention seems to have been paid by the 
owners of the haciendas to improving the 
condition or value of their herds, as the ex- 
pense of maintaining and handling the cattle 
is nominal, with profits necessarily large. 

These things have been proved to be facts 
by the American Tropical Agricultural Com- 
pr.nies. These companies have been shipping 
in blooded, high grade cattle. Their experi- 
ence shows that the blooded cattle do well, 
are healthy and maintain the highest standard 



these pastures is to buy the range cattle, pas- 
ture them from four to six months, and then 
sell them. They cost him about $25.00 per 
head and sell for from $40.00 to $55.00. These 
cattle, being small, are bought and sold by 
the head. With improved cattle and improved 
methods, cattle will be handled entirely by 
the pound. Range cattle owners pay from 
50c to 75c per head per month for the use of 
])ara grass pastures for fattening their cat- 
tle. 

During the past years the cattle business 
has been very active and profitable, with every 
indication of continued prosperity ; heavy 
shipments have been made to Cuba, Yucatan 




Pineapple 



j.xceedingly profitable crop. 



of their sires in bone and flesh, demonstrating 
the fact that the enterprising American farm- 
er and stockman, with improved animals, ma- 
chinery and methods, obtains many fold great- 
er profits for his labor in Mexico than in the 
United States or Canada. 

Up to the present time few diseases have 
appeared among any kind of cattle, the cli- 
matic conditions being favorable for the re- 
production of stock of all kinds. At shipping 
ages the cattle are fattened on para, privilegio 
(guinea) or other grasses. The favorite grass 
in the lowlands is the para, while privilegio 
i'^ better adapted to the highlands. One acre 
of these grasses will, within a few months, 
fatten an animal for the market. The only 
expense recjuired is that of ordinary care, to 
see that the cattle are within their pasture 
until time for shipping. 

The ordinary operation of the owner of 



and South Africa. Large packing houses by 
.American capitalists are now being installed 
that will give a stability to the market for cat- 
tle and hogs in the future. 



Horses and Mules. 

Me.xico City is a splendid market for fine 
driving and riding horses. The principal car- 
riage and riding animals are imported from 
the United States. The animal of the coun- 
try is a common-size pony and a small mule, 
both of which stand lots of hard work. There 
is a splendid market at high prices for high 
grade work horses and mules, the demand be- 
ing much in excess of the supply. Well 
matched teams in color, of spirited carriage 
horses, command from $1,200 to $2,500 per 
pair. 



A 



jXDEKFii. Country. 



39 



The Raising of Hogs. 

The official records show that 67"^ per cent 
ol the hog products, such as ham, pork, bacon, 
lard, etc., are imported from the United 
States. Ham and bacon sell at wholesale in 
the City of Mexico at from 50c to 60c (sil- 
ver) per pound ; lard, 30c per pound. Xeces- 
sarily the price of hog products will be gov- 
erned by the price in the United States, 
freight, duty, commission and other expenses 
added,. and as a result it will be several years 
before the production will equal the consump- 
tion in Mexico. 



to harvest, ti.e pasture is ready for the cattle. 
The corn should pay for clearing the land. 

This grass is very nutritious and grows 
luxur'antly in the river valleys and through 
the foot hills in the tropics. An acre will 
fciitt-n a lean steer for the market in a few 
months. Hogs also can be run on these pas- 
tures until ready to fatten, when a few bush- 
els of corn or a small amount of bananas or 
vuca, will put in jjrime condition for the mar- 
'ket. 

This grass can be cured and baled, and large 
shipments have been made to Yucatan, but as 
vegetation is always green in the portion of 




ill raising liMgs in tlu- i.iulf Cfjast Ci)Uiitr\ uf Mexi( 



Fattening Grasses. 

The farmer and cattleman should investi- 
gate the great value of fattening grass pas- 
tures as a money making proposition. The 
grass once "set," with ordinary care, the pas- 
ture is permanent. 

Para Grass. 

The para, a jointed grass, originally came 
from a district of that name in Peru. It is 
estimated that there are now in Alexico 100,- 
000 acres covered with it. The best and most 
economical way to start a para grass pasture 
is to clear and plant the land to corn, and 
when cultivating same, plant joints of tlrN 
grass in the rows. \Mien the corn is rearlv 



t'e country where it grows, it is not necessary 
to cure it for Immc consumption. 

Guinea or Privilegio Grass. 

This is kn(jwn as bunch grass, grows very 
luxuriantly on the lands, and is propogated 
from seed. It is ready for pasturing in about 
the same time as the para, and aside from its 
fattening properties, is a great butter pro- 
ducer. The seed also is a good source of in- 
come. 

In addition to the above, there are many 
native grasses which furnish good jiasturag?. 

POULTRY AND DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

V. S. Mce Consul Charles C. Eberhardt, 
Mexico City, reports that there is money to 
be made in poultry and dairy products. He 
states : 



40 



Plain" Facts About Mexico. 




Cattle in Privilegio Grass. 

"During the fiscal year 1902-3 the United States 
sent to Mexico fresh eggs to the value of $62,163, 
butter to the value of $96,641 and cheese to the 
value of $51,963 gold, and in 190S, according to 
American statistics, butter and cheese shipments 
amounted to $133,257 and $40,329 respectively. So 
far as I can learn no American eggs are shipped as 
far south as Mexico City, unless the shipping is 
done by water," 

Poultry is healthy in the tropics, and this 
should be a very profitable industry, as the 
products could be readily disposed of in Mexi- 
co City and the other large towns of the Re- 
public, at a good price. 

Honey. 

Mexico is the true hoine of the honey bee. 
It is healthy and does well, without the neces- 
sity of laying up a store for the long winter, 
as there are always flowers in bloom for its 
use. 

The market price for honey averages about 
25 cents per pound, and there is money to be 
made in a large apiary in Mexico. 

GAME AND FISH. 

There is an abundance of game and fish in 
the forests and streams of Tropical Mexico. 
The nimrod and angler will find a fine field 
for sport. 

In the forests will be found an abundance 
of deer, tapir, coons, opossum, rabbit, black, 
grey and red squirrels, annadillo, porcupine, 
monkey (several species), parrots of many 
varieties and birds of inost beautiful plumage, 
pheasants (several varieties), pigeons, doves, 
snipe and ducks of all kinds, etc. 

The clear mountain streams are well stocked 
with fine table fish, such as the trout, black- 
ball, pike, inullet, cat and other varieties. In 



the principal creeks and rivers will be found 
fresh water salmon and various salt water fish 
that visit the fresh waters during the season ; 
pike, and several varieties of turtles. 

TIMBER. 

There are some splendid timber lands in our 
portion of Mexico, and much of this timber is 
of the most valuable varieties, such as ma- 
hogany, black walnut, rosewood, cedar, the 
dye woods, etc. 

There are in all about sixty varieties, many 
of which are little known and some entirely 
unknown to the outer world or even to a ma- 
jority of the- Mexican people. Among these 
are to be found the full equivalents of hickory, 
poplar, oak, gum, hard pine and other woods 
used in the United States. 

The majority of the woods are of superior 
quality, and are very desirable for fine furni- 
ture and furnishings. 

Many of the most valuable varieties, which 
in the United States would bring high prices 
in the furniture markets, are being used in 
Mexico for railroad ties, cordwood, etc. 

EUCALYPTUS. 

Of course, this matter of timber can be 
treated here only in a general way. Anyone 
having in mind the purchase of land for its 
timber value and as a timber proposition, will 
rec[uire special information as to particular 
tracts of these lands. 

However, this applies only to timber already 
grown. 

There is another tiinber proposition in this 
Gulf Coast Country of Mexico that it will 
be profitable to consider. 

It is the quick-growing timber — the Euca- 
lyptus tree, which is receiving so much atten- 
tion on the part of the Forest Service division 
of the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture. 

As everyone who gives even casual atten- 
tion to such matters is aware, the timber sit- 
uation in this country is getting very close to 
the point where it will be a serious problem. 

The demand for lumber is ever increasing. 
What of the supply? Where is the replenish- 
ment? Not in the growth of new forests in 
this country ; it would take too long a tiine, 
and the necessary land is too high-priced, even 
if we could bide the time. 

Therefore, as we have said, the Forest 
Service division of the Department of Agri- 
culture has been giving much attention to the 
quick-growing Eucalyptus tree, which is a 
native of Australia. 

But it is found that the Eucalyptus is killed 
ill its early growth by a single frost. There- 



A \\'oxDERFUL Country. 



41 



fore its growth is contined in the United 
States to a very limited area. In Southern 
Cahfornia the Eucalyptus is being grown with 
much success, and the planting of large for- 
ests there is a splendid enterprise commanding 
great investments. 

Now we claim, and your investigation will 
prove, that our portion of Alexico is far su- 
perior to Southern California for the growth 
ot Eucalyptus. This fact has been demon- 
strated, although but little attention has been 
given to Eucalyptus in Alexico because of her 
primeval forests of other timber. But, never- 
theless, the growing of Eucalyptus is one of 
the many splendid opportunities in the Gulf 
Coast Country of Mexico. 



Blue gum is one of the largest and most rapid 
growing trees in the world. In California, under 
favorable conditions, trees have attained a height of 
175 feet and a diameter of 5 feet in twenty-five 
years. Although sometimes irregular in form, the 
tree tends to develop a straight, gradually tapering, 
unforked stem. In plantations the trunks become 
rapidly cleared of branches to a considerable height, 
but in the open, trees branch more widely, and grad- 
ually develop a short crown of massive, spreading 
liranches. 

The wood of blue gum is very heavy, hard, strong 
and tough, but it is not durable in contact with the 
soil. It is close-grained, and is split with difficulty 
after it has dried. It is less elastic than hickory, 
but it has been demonstrated by mechanical tests 
that seasoned blue gum timber is very little in- 
ferior in strength and stiffness to the Dest sccond- 
! rowth hickory. In appearance it closely resembles 
the W'Ood of hickorv and ash. 




Cutting Tobacco in the Isthmus of Tehauntepec. 



To give reliable information of the marvel- 
ously rapid growth of this timber, its quali- 
ties, value, etc., we quote the following ex- 
tracts from Forest Service Circular 59 (re- 
vised) of the U. S. Department of Agricul- 
ture, issued October 3, 1907: 

Eucalypts have been planted most extensively in 
California, and there the value of different species 
may best be determined. The rate and habit of 
growth of the blue, sugar and gray gums and a few 
other species make them superior to other eucalypts 
and recommend them especiallv for commercial 
plantations. Blue gum. one of the best commercial 
species, has been the one most widely planted. Its 
requirements, characteristics and methods of propa- 
gation are typical of those of other timber eucalypts. 

Blue .gum is an evergreen tree, with smooth, 
elongated, sickle-shaped leaves, dark green on both 
sides, and of leathery texture. The young leaves 
are of a globular shape and are covered w-ith an 
oily bloom which gives them a bluish shade. The 
bark of the tree is smooth, and olive brown in color. 
The large, rounded, top-shaped seed-cases, covered 
with warty protuberances, furnish the most dis- 
tinguishing characteristics of the tree. 



Blue gum timber is utilised for a great variety of 
purposes in California. The wood is excellent for 
fuel, and in the treeless valleys has been the chief 
fuel supply for many years. In Southern California 
the steady demand renders commercial planting for 
fuel very profitable. Eucalyptus timber has been 
extensively used in California for wharf piling. 
Blue gum piles are in use in nearly every port on the 
California coast, and extended trial has shoyvn 
that they resist the attacks of marine borers which 
destroy timber in sea water longer than other 
species commonly used for piling. 

And from the State Forester's Report of 
California, we quote as follows: 

All the Eucalyptus planted in California sprout 
vigorously from the stump or root, after cuttmg. 
Whenever it is desirable to reproduce any ordinary 
tree which possesses coppicing qualities, advantage 
is generally taken of them. In most trees, however, 
the sprouts produced after the third or fourth cut- 
ting are less thrifty than those after the first or 
second. This tendencv to w'eaken, is not present 
in the Eucalyptus. Full-wood groves of Ettcalyp- 
lus hare sprouted %!> vigorously after the fourth 
and fifth cutting, and seedling trees over thirty 
years old sl^mut after a eutting, as thriftily as young 



42 



I'l.Aix !-' ACTS About AIexico. 




Ilia, states in a letter to the Sacramento V'al- 
le}' Development Association as published in 
the Pacific Fruit World, April 4, 1908, the 
following items among others : 

"I planted about 250,000 Eucalyptus trees of the 
different varieties, in all probably about thirty. 
The best results I had was blue gum. Eleven j'ears 
old, twenty-eight inches in diameter and 104 feet 
high. I recently sold about $4000 worth of this 
variety for wharf piles. This variety will last about 
three times as long as the redwood or the Oregon 
pine. 

"The red gum (Eucalyptus Rostrata) when fin- 
ished, can not be told from mahogany. It is a hard- 
zvood easily zuorkcd, even better than mahogany, 
quarter-sazved oak or lualnut, for furniture. 

"I have a red gum tree thirty-one years old, which 
contains nearly 2,000 feet of lumber, and if sawed, 
dried and ready for finishing offices, banks, etc., it 
would have a value of about $200 for the single 
tree." 

With land in tlie (lulf Coast Country of 
Mexico costing but a small fraction of the 
price of California land, with more favorable 
climatic conditions and an abundance of rain- 
fall producing even more rapid growth than in 
California, with greater accessibility and 
cheaper transportation to the world's markets, 
we claim that the Gulf Coast Country of Mex- 
ico is superior to Southern California for the 
l^rofitable growth of Eucalyptus. 



■Cocoanut Palms, Isthmus of Tehauntepec. 

trees — indeed, it is almost impossible lo kill tin 
stumps of old Eucalyptus trees, or to prci'ent tlu 
sprouting of old roots after the siuinps liuz-e ban 
grubbed out. 

No one factor has so much influence in govern- 
ing the extension of Eucalyptus as temperatu' e 
The fact that its planting range is practically re 
stricted to California, is wholly attributable to the 
frost-tenderness of the genus. 

For best results. Eucalyptus plantations should 
be set out not closer than 6x6 feet, and not widci 
than 10x10 feet for any purpose. 

Under favorable roudilions. seedling plantaticm 
have reached a nta.viinnm deielopincnt of Hve inches 
in diameter, and si.vty-sevcn feet in height in fcui 
years. This represents an average of seventeen feet 
height grozvth per year, though a grozvth of ten to 
fifteen feet in height vearlv is the general azw-agt 

MARVELOUS GROWTH— In the height of the 
first growing season, seedlings have frequently been 
observed to make an average height grozvth of si i 
inches a day. The most rapid seedling growth noted 
was made by a tree which in nine years reacaea a 
height of 125 feet, and a diameter of thirti'-six 
inches. As is usual among vigorously sprouting 
trees sprouts upon old root systems surpass 5cca- 
linQ:s in rate of growth. From sorouts growths m 
ei.Qhteen months a maximum diameter of thin 
irches and thirty-four feet height, has been reached 
While in three years a maximum diameter of scmii 
inches and sez'cnty feet in height has been attaint d 

The Hon. Elwood Cooper of Santa Bar- 
bara, California, for 25 or 30 years president 
of the State Board of H(Trticulture, Califor- 




A \\'0XDERFLiL CoUXTRV. 



43 




&t^^■T-~^3^g^fV>^fe».-'■ 



A Lemon Grove in Tropical Mexico. 



CONCLUSION. 

A\'e have endeavored in the preceding pages to give you the benefit of information about 
Mexico which we have obtained by careful and extended personal sight-seeing and investi- 
gation, in connection with facts compiled by us from the most reliable authorities. 

In our tour of inspection and investigation of Mexico, we met a great many Americans, 
especially in the Gulf Coast Country of ^ilexico, who have lived there for years and who are 
qualified to speak from experience.' 

Naturally we placed much reliance upon the information and opinions gained from these 
Americans, and we found them universallv favoralile to the Gulf Coast Country from every 
standpoint. 

Our account of the conditions of ]\Iexico in general and of the Gulf Coast Country in 
particular may seem to you too glowing — that is, if you have not seen that country and 
studied its conditions. If you have seen what we have attempted to describe, then you 
must know that we have not onlv not exaggerated, but that we have not done the subject 
full justice. 

In conclusion, we again assert that there is absolutelv nothing that can prevent this Gulf 
Coast Country from very soon becoming one of the most delightful and profitable garden 
.spots of the world. It is going to be settled up largelv by American people. The move- 
ment is already well under wav. 

And we also assert that nowhere and at no time has there ever been offered a better 
ojiportunity for an absolutely safe and an immensely profitable investment in land than that 
which is now presented in this Gulf Coast Countrv of the Republic of Mexico. 

Respectfully submitted. 

DAMS P.ROS., Investment Brokers, 



101^) Commerce Bh 



Kansas Citv, "Slo. 



Cable: "WOOLRICH" Apavrado No. 7. 

mmwm ESo W®®Hipn(sljii 
T®Ihs!naonft®p®(£= 

A. B. C 4a EDICION 

Tehauntepec, Dec, 2, 1908. 

Messrs. Davis Bros., 

Kansas City, Mo. 
Dear Si rs : 

Replying to your inquiry concerning the health conditions 
of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec . Mexico, will say that I can probably 
reply best by referring to my own experience. I am now 78 years old 
and have lived 52 years on the Isthmus of Tehauntepec, and I am 
pleased to say that I do not know of any place where I could have en- 
joyed better health or more physical comfort. 

This is called by some the "hot country" of Mexico but 
people who have been here in the summer time know that it is cooler 
in that season than in most parts of the United States. Of course, 
we have no real winters here as the thermometer never gets as low as 
the freezing point . 

Well knowing the great fertility of the soil and plenti- 
ful rainfall of the central part of the Isthmus, the excellent 
climate and the present rapid development in these parts, I do not 
hesitate to recommend to the honest American, this part of Mexico 
as a place where he can prosper under good and healthful conditions. 

Yours truly, 



J1^ J^ Tf^Tndvp^^ 



Miiiii iiiii iiiii Mill iiiii iiiii iiiii mil mil mil iiiiii iii iiii 

015 847 119 A 



